Darkness Rising, Silence Falls
by Bandit3
Summary: A mysterious necklace and an ancient prophecy catalpult the Digidestined into a world of nightmares where they must fight off the ultimate darkness...or be destroyed. (Mimato, Taiora, Takari.) (Ch. 8 is up, and dedicated to Liz Ciccarelli! ^_^)
1. Prologue

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
Prologue  
~*~*~*~  
  
The fluttering beat of the bat's leathery wings made hardly a sound as it slipped through the night sky. Beneath its erratic path, Tokyo slept in glittering splendor, like a queen who wore her jewels even as she rested, swathed in a mantle of blackest velvet. This bat was like any other at first glimpse, but if the curious watcher had looked a second time, two things would have become apparent about this particular specimen.  
  
First, instead of a typical button black, its eyes shone a demonic red.  
  
And secondly, it carried something clutched in its claw-like feet. Something that glittered golden in the lights of the city below, and gleamed a deep, lush red from three shimmering locus, lit through with the light that streamed from the skyscraper windows and the headlights of the cars.  
  
Something that-despite its beauty-gave off an air of cloying evil as it was borne through the air by its winged messenger.  
  
Something that was clearly unnatural, out of place, and somehow wrong, in a deep, elemental way. A way which refuted nature and her laws, and which spat in the bony face of death. A way that whispered portents of doom to all who were foolish enough to touch it.  
  
The bat winged its way downward, spiraling toward the towers below with its sinister cargo. It backed air, hovered for a moment, then landed with a soft tap of claws on scratchy brick on the windowsill of one of the many nondescript buildings that reared from Tokyo's pavements. It was not important, what the building was like.  
  
It was what was inside the building that would make or break the future of the world.  
  
Opening its clawed feet, the bat let its burden fall to rest on the dull red bricks. There was a slight flare of light in the three globes of red woven among the strands of gold as it hit the sill, as though some unseen resident was angered by the rough landing.  
  
Turning to the glass of the window, the bat leaned over, balancing on one claw, and tapped the other against the glass: once, twice, three times. A faint stirring inside brought its head up in alert watchfulness. Someone inside moved, stretched, got to their feet, and the bat startled into flight, seeming to flee into the golden coin of the moon to anyone who might have been watching. But no one saw.  
  
And the one who might have seen caught only a glimpse.  
  
Still, a glimpse would not be enough to save her.  
  
~*~*~*~ 


	2. Finders Keepers, and Darkness Takes Flig...

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
  
Chapter One- Finders Keepers, and Darkness Takes Flight  
~*~*~*~  
  
It was the tapping at her window that woke Mimi Tachikawa.  
  
At first she thought it had been part of her dream, but it continued after she had hauled herself out of the warm peacefulness of fantasy and sleep. Blinking drowsiness out of her eyes, she stretched luxuriously, glancing at the red letters of the clock on her nightstand-1:27 am.  
  
Frowning-she needed her beauty sleep, after all-she looked around the room to see what might be causing the sound. She'd been having such a nice dream, too, about flying on a pair of glittering butterfly wings with Lilymon through a meadow full of giant flowers...but just before she'd awoken, something bad had happened. What had it been? Oh, yes. A dark shadow had fallen over them, from behind and above. She'd looked over her shoulder, and there had been a flash of red light, something arrowing toward her-and she'd woken up, to the sound of tapping on glass.  
  
Glass! She looked to the window, and sure enough, a small shadow, birdlike, was being cast on the glass. Swinging her bare legs over the side of the bed, she slid soft pink slippers over her feet and stood, padding over to the window. As she neared the panes, the creature on the other side of the glass took flight, gliding away into the night on an updraft from the street below. She caught only a flash of black wings in the moonlight before it was gone.  
  
A raven, maybe, Mimi thought, or a crow. They like shiny things-maybe it saw light reflecting off of the window and landed. Still, she reached for the latch on the window, flipping it and prying the window open. No sense in leaving things to chance. She would make sure it was gone, and that it hadn't left any messes to clean up later.  
  
The window protested loudly, once, then seemed to give up and slid smoothly up along the grooves made for that purpose. Leaning out so that her soft brown hair whipped around her shoulders and face, Mimi shivered in her sleeveless green satin nightgown. Her hands braced on the sill, she searched the skies above, and the street below, punctuated by the red and white lights of automobile head and taillights, the sound of the occasional honking horn drifting up to her ears. No bird. Not even an airplane lent its airborne sparkle to the night sky, coming in for a landing in the airport nearby.  
  
Shrugging, Mimi ducked back through the window. Her hands brushed something, which fell to the floor inside with a clink. Kneeling, she picked it up, turning it over in her hands. The moon streamed in through the window, giving her more than enough light to see by.  
  
It was some sort of necklace, not unlike the henna necklaces that had passed through style a few years ago, but braided of some soft golden material, finer than silk and just as soft. This necklace wouldn't scratch at the wearer's skin or itch like the ones like it she'd owned before. Woven into the strands of gold were three perfect globes, the center one larger than the two that flanked it, made of what looked like smoked glass, and as red as the last drops of life's blood from a dying beast, or a sunset over a flaming woodland. It was utterly beautiful, and it drew Mimi like a magnet. She itched to put it on then and there.  
  
Standing up, she examined the clasp. It was a simple metal hook-and-eye, knotted up in the ends of the weaving. She moved to sit on her bed, switching on the bedside lamp and squinting in the glare, to better see this mysterious piece of jewelry.  
  
I've never seen anything like it, she thought to herself. It's magnificent...and so soft! Amazing... But should I keep it? It could belong to someone! Mimi frowned, thinking hard. Huh...the raven, or whatever it was, probably dropped it. They do like shiny things. Maybe it was bringing it back to its nest, or something. I bet its owner stopped looking for it already. And since I found it, that makes it mine! Finders keepers, losers weepers. So there!  
  
Having come to a decision, Mimi stood up, holding the necklace up to her neck and admiring herself in the mirror. The gold and blood red glinted against her skin, making her look like a queen in her green satin. With a little smile on her face, she gazed at her reflection, utterly satisfied. Then, impulsively, she brought the halves of the clasp together at the nape of her neck.  
  
A shock ran through her, shivering her to the bone and making her eyes go wide, her pupils dilate. She staggered back, putting a hand to her head, and almost collapsed onto the bed. Having barely managed to stay on her feet, it took her a minute to get her wind back.  
  
"Static electricity," she whispered in a shaken voice to the silent room. "It must have been static electricity. That's all." Without further comment, as if the matter was now settled, she tugged off her slippers and slid back under the covers, leaving the necklace on. Reaching out to switch off the lamp, she snuggled into her pillow, hugging her stuffed bear, at ease once more.  
  
However, the matter was far from settled. While for the moment her sleep was peaceful, it would be the last of such she would enjoy in what would come to seem like a lifetime. And it would be a long time before she felt such security again.  
  
~*~*~*~ 


	3. Seventy-Three Yen, and Darkness Begins I...

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
  
Chapter 2- Seventy-Three Yen, And Darkness Begins Its Work  
~*~*~*~  
  
"Whooooee!"  
  
A brightly-colored projectile shot over the heads of the two boys, making them duck and throw their arms up to shield their craniums, their hair riffled by the passing breeze stirred up by the living missile. Doing an ollie in midair and grinding down the railing of the school steps, the boarder braked and jumped off her skateboard, flipping it up into her hand with one foot and reaching up to pull off her helmet, letting a cascade of golden-orange hair roll down over her shoulders.  
  
"Hey, dudes, what's happening?"  
  
TK shrugged. "Other than the fact that you just almost took the top of my head off...nothing much."  
  
Joe scowled. "Sats, you have got to be more careful on that thing!"  
  
"Why?" Satsuma Taiyo said flippantly, leaning on the railing she'd just ground down and grabbing one of the little oranges she liked so much-and was nicknamed after-from her shoulder bag. "I like it," she said, peeling the orange neatly into an S shape and tossing the peel over her shoulder into a garbage can, "and I get goob etherthise fum it," she continued around a juicy mouthful of fruit.  
  
Joe rolled his eyes. The girl was irrepressible, and actually impossible not to like once you got to know her. Her 'unnatural obsession' with the little fruits was her claim to fame; she always seemed to have a few of them around, in her book bag, shoulder bag, gym bag, coat pocket… Satsuma's real name was Natsume, but it had been too good of a similarity to pass up when it came to nicknames. After years of being called Satsuma by even her parents, she'd come to respond to the name better than her given one. She was cheerful, athletic, and popular, and a bit of a class screwball. Everyone liked her, and Joe had known her since she'd waltzed over to him in chemistry class and asked if he wanted an orange. That had been in the sixth grade, the year after he'd returned from the Digital world, and they'd become good friends since.  
  
"Futhamow," Satsuma swallowed, then kept talking. "Furthermore, it's just plain cool, and you couldn't do it if your life depended on it. So don't knock it until you've tried it, okay?"  
  
"I wouldn't knock it," Joe said wryly, "if you hadn't just come close to knocking my head off."   
  
Satsuma shrugged. "I wouldn't. I'm too good at what I do for that."  
  
"Well, I don't want to end up stitching you up in the ER someday, so keep your eyes open, deal?" Joe said. Satsuma grinned.  
  
"Deal. Now if you're through complaining, we're about to be late for Trig. TK, you coming?"  
  
"Nope, just walking Joe over. Middle school doesn't start for half an hour, so I've got plenty of time."  
  
Satsuma shook her head. "Lucky little squirts. C'mon, Blue-boy, let's burn sneaker rubber."  
  
The two upperclassmen took off running into the school, heading for the lockers for Satsuma to drop her board before Trig class.  
  
  
  
"Mimi! Hey, Mimi!"  
  
Glancing up absently from her locker, Mimi spotted her best friend, Sora Takenouchi, speeding toward her down the linoleum tiles of the hallway. She smiled.  
  
"Hi, Sora. Is the sky falling?"  
  
Sora screeched to a stop, breathing hard. "Don't be silly, of course it isn't. I thought you went off to Home Ec without me."  
  
"Close enough," Mimi giggled. "Missing me already? I just saw you this morning, you know. It was really nice of your mom to let me come early to spend Spring Break with you guys. Have I thanked her for that yet?"  
  
"A million times," Sora stated, rolling her eyes fondly.  
  
Mimi frowned. "And anyway, Sora, I am not in that big of a hurry to get to Home Ec. You said you're starting the sewing unit, and last year I sewed the tote bag I was making to the sleeve of my favorite shirt, remember?"  
  
"How could I forget?" Sora said, giggling. "Mr. Fuwashi had to get a pair of scissors and cut it off. You threw a hissy fit about all the little thread holes that were left in it."  
  
"Oh, don't remind me," Mimi said with a groan. At times, she'd been glad she'd left that class behind when she went to America. Mr. Fuwashi was nice, but Mimi was notoriously inept at housekeeping. Sora shrugged.  
  
"Hey, you brought it up, not me. Want to go get a Snapple or something before class?"  
  
Mimi checked her watch. "We've got a few minutes…sure. Mind if I borrow a couple of yen? I don't think I have enough."  
  
"Course not. We'd better hurry, though."  
  
The girls stampeded off in the direction of the juice machines by the cafeteria, nearly running down a pair of guys coming from the other direction.  
  
"Whoa! What's the emergency, you two?"  
  
Sora laughed. "Sorry, Tai. What are you and Matt up to?"  
  
"I could ask you the same question, young lady," Tai said, imitating their Lit teacher to a tee.  
  
"Just getting a Snapple, Mr. Wenbu," Mimi chimed in, recognizing the impression of the most widely-yet fondly-imitated eccentric of a teacher in Odaiba High. Matt frowned grumpily at her, getting into the act.  
  
"A Snapple? Sounds like a drug deal to me. Miss Tachikawa, get ready for hours of detention."  
  
Tai turned to him, arms crossed. "Mr. Ishida, what do you think you're doing, imitating me? Get ready for hours of detention!"  
  
"Me, imitating you, Mr. Kamiya?" Matt said in tones of deepest disgust, pretending to tug at a large mustache. "What a horrible idea. Why on earth would I want to do that? The very idea is insulting! This calls for hours of detention."  
  
Sora and Mimi dissolved into giggles at the pair of comedians. Matt and Tai looked at each other and grinned, pleased with their joke. Suddenly, both girls' giggles stopped dead. They were both staring at something behind the boys.  
  
"There's...something bad behind us...isn't there?" Matt said slowly. Both girls nodded. Slowly, reluctantly, both boys turned around.  
  
"Mr. Kamiya. Mr. Ishida," Mr. Wenbu intoned, standing in full mustachioed glory behind them. He paused, then bellowed, "Get ready for hours of detention!"  
  
"Eep," Tai and Matt hiccupped, frozen in place.  
  
Mimi and Sora burst into hysterical laughter, then fled away down the hallway, leaving the boys to face their fate at the hands of the grumpiest teacher in the school. They skidded to a stop by the pop machines, still doubled over in laughter.  
  
"Oh, did you see their faces?" Sora gasped, leaning on the Pepsi machine. Mimi nodded, lost for words. She put a hand up to her throat, shaking her head as if to say, Can't talk now, laughing too hard...  
  
Sora squinted at her friend's neck, her laughter ebbing away as her eyes widened.  
  
"Oh, wow. Mimi, where did you get that? It's gorgeous!"  
  
Mimi looked self-consciously down at the necklace, resting in the hollow of her throat in all its burnished glory. "Oh, this?" she said evasively, putting her hand up to touch the jewel-like beads. "It was a...a present..."  
  
"From who?" Sora said, grinning. Mimi thought fast; she didn't feel like telling the full truth, somehow...  
  
"I...I don't know. It just...turned up! Appeared at my window. Or your window, you could say."  
  
Sora's eyes sparkled. "A secret admirer!" she exclaimed. "Oh, Mimi, you are so darn lucky! I can't stand it!"  
  
Mimi shrugged, finding it hard to get into the spirit. "Yeah...just great."  
  
"Huh...you don't seem too enthused," Sora said, frowning at her usually boy-crazy friend. "I'd expect you to be gushing about something like this. Is something wrong?"  
  
"No!" Mimi exclaimed. She blushed, lowering her voice. "I mean...no, nothing's wrong. I'm just fine. Hey, about those yen?"  
  
"Oh, right," Sora said, fishing in her purse. Mimi's not telling me something. But...I guess it's her business what secrets she keeps. When she feels ready to tell me, she'll tell me. I just have to trust her, that's all. "Here you go," she said, handing Mimi a handful of change. Mimi smiled, her cheery attitude back.  
  
"Thanks! I owe you one."  
  
"Actually, you owe me seventy-three," Sora said with a grin. Mimi added the change to a few coins pulled out of her pockets and punched up a strawberry-lemonade. Sora got a kiwi-melon, and they headed for Home Ec. Still, Sora couldn't help wondering; what was this big secret hanging around Mimi's new jewelry that she was so eager to keep hidden?  
  
  
  
"Class, come to order!" Mr. Fuwashi said for the fifth time. A short, wiry little man with jet-black hair and large, intelligent brown eyes, Mr. Fuwashi was usually able to command the attention of his classes. This being the week before spring break, however, even his camaraderie with teenagers was unable to calm down his students. "I know we're all eager to get out of here, me included, but we have to give our full attention to school while we're in it. So if you would all stop running amok with kris in your teeth, could we please get started on matters of home economics?"  
  
The class mumbled apologies, and shuffled back to seats they'd left. Mimi hopped off of the sewing table where she'd been perched, gossiping with Sora and Aika Shanjo, another girl in the class with curly dark hair and piercing green eyes behind tortoiseshell reading glasses. Mr. Fuwashi smiled at her from his desk.  
  
"Oh, and I'm sure we'd all like to welcome Miss Tachikawa back to our class for her temporary stint as an Odaiba High School student. Am I right in saying you're staying at Miss Takenouchi's residence?"  
  
Mimi nodded and smiled at the waving students around her. Nice guy, she thought. He hasn't changed much since the last time I had him as a teacher... Sliding into her seat, she tried to pay attention as Mr. Fuwashi launched into a review of the guidelines of using a sewing machine, but her mind seemed to be wandering. She frowned; it wasn't as if she hadn't had enough sleep the night before, so why was she so…distant? Her eyes drifted to the window, and she watched as a butterfly fluttered lazily by…  
  
The world around her was utterly empty. Words like dull, endless, rolling, surreal, all would have fit, but empty was the essence of the plain, gray-brown hillocks that stretched in every direction as far as she could see, desert-like, rising into rolling mountains in the distance, and the only word that stuck in the oppressive silence. She called out, but no answer came. Taking a few steps, she saw puffs of dull brown dust rise and powder her jeans. This whole world was made of dust, dust and emptiness and silence.  
  
Suddenly, from a distance, she heard a sound struggle in the silence. Someone else was here! Turning toward the sound, she began to run, clouds of dust making her cough and splutter. Faint, eerie sounds, like wind wailing through the top branches of a tired old oak tree, or a musical saw played by a memory of a musician, floated around her now, as though her presence there had called them into life. She crested a hill…  
  
And there it was, bursting up from the ground in a rainbow of color and a torrent of sound-  
  
"Miss Tachikawa?"  
  
Mimi snapped back to reality like a pebble from a slingshot, blinking and blushing. She glanced reflexively at her jeans; not a smudge of the fine, brown dust remained. If it ever was there, she thought, suspicion coloring her mind. What just happened? It was so real...  
  
"If you would please pay attention, Miss Tachikawa. We don't want a repeat of last year's sewing machine fiasco, do we?"  
  
There was a wave of titters from around the classroom, and Mimi blushed harder and sat up very straight in her seat.  
  
"No, Mr. Fuwashi," she said awkwardly, looking down at the table. The teacher resumed his lecture, and she sighed. Maybe I'm just going nuts...  
  
As it lay nestled around her throat, the necklace seemed to glimmer, just once, and faintly, as though reflecting a nonexistent light. But again, no one was watching.  
  
~*~*~*~ 


	4. Darkness Deepens, Never Wake A Sleepwalk...

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
  
Chapter 3- Darkness Deepens, Never Wake A Sleepwalker  
~*~*~*~  
  
"Whew, am I glad that day's over!" Sora exclaimed, as she and Mimi slammed the door to the Takenouchi's apartment and dropped their backpacks on the floor. "Spring break, here I come!"  
  
"Oh, yeah!" Mimi agreed, flopping onto the couch. "For the next week I am taking turns vegging out and hitting the town, dressed to kill. How 'bout you?"  
  
"Sounds good to me!" Sora laughed, grabbing the remote and joining her best friend. "Except, there is no way you are making me wear pink. That clear?"  
  
"Clear as a bell," Mimi said with a devilish grin, sounding the very opposite of her crest. Sora pretended to ward her off with crossed fingers, scooting away from her. Mimi scowled and threw a couch pillow at her friend, who reciprocated with the bean-bag chair lying next to the sofa. Mimi yelped and clawed it off of herself, throwing it to the floor. "Yikes! That thing stinks!"  
  
Sora grinned. "The cat sleeps on it."  
  
"Aaaghhh!" Mimi wailed, trying to wipe cat hair off of her shirt and failing miserably. Suddenly, she frowned. "What cat?"  
  
Sora chuckled and clapped her hands. "Kichi! C'mere, girl!"  
  
A small gray-and-black-striped tabby face peeked out from under a chair. Mimi's moaning turned to squealing as she went into the infamous I-See-A-Cute-Thing Mode that girls like her are so well known for.  
  
"OhmygoshohmygoshohmyGOSH! Sora, you did not tell me you got a kitten! It is the cutest little kitty on the planet! It's better than Tai's cat any day! Ohmygosh, I wish my parents would let me get a kitty like that!"  
  
Sora laughed as Mimi dove onto her stomach on the carpet, reaching under the chair for the kitten, which had been frightened into hiding by her high-pitched squeals.  
  
"Come to Auntie Mimi, kitty! I won't hurt you!" Mimi wriggled out from under the chair, scowling. "She won't come. Am I that weird?"  
  
"You're scaring her, Mimi," Sora chuckled. "And you're kind of scaring me, too. Try sitting still and wiggling your fingers where she can see them."  
  
"I don't see how that's going to help," Mimi sulked, but tried it anyway. She shut her eyes and hummed quietly, sitting cross-legged like Sora told her to. After a few minutes, her eyes flew open as she felt something soft batting at her socks. "Oh!"  
  
"Shh!" Sora hissed as Kichi skipped back, her pupils the size of saucers. Mimi shhed. After a minute or two, the kitten came back, investigating Mimi's socks, then climbing up into her lap and settling down into a contented ball of fuzz. Mimi let out another squeal, more quietly this time.  
  
Sora grinned. "See, she likes you when you're not grubbing around on the carpet screaming like a pig with its head stuck in a bucket."  
  
Mimi made a face at her friend, then giggled. "Oh, look, she's getting up."  
  
The kitten yawned hugely, stretched, and began to climb out of Mimi's lap. Mimi reached out and scooped her up, cuddling her to her face and tickling her under the chin. Kichi began to purr, waving her paws in the air. Mimi was completely blissed out. Sora watched, pleased that her new pet and her best friend got along so well.  
  
Opening her big green eyes, the kitten spotted the glowingly red beads of Mimi's necklace. Her interest piqued, she began to bat at them like she'd done Mimi's socks. Mimi and Sora laughed.  
  
"Look at that," Sora quipped, "she's got good taste in jewelry! I'll have to find her a collar like th-hey! What happened?"  
  
"Ow!" Mimi yelped as Kichi let out an angry squall and bounded out of Mimi's arms, scratching her as she fled to hide under the sofa, staring out at Mimi with huge frightened eyes. Her little body looked like a gigantic puffball, the result of every hair on her body standing straight out. Mimi put a hand up to the necklace, her eyes nearly as big as Kichi's.  
  
"If I didn't know better, I'd think I just saw your necklace zap my cat," Sora said slowly, sounding confused and suspicious. Mimi blinked, trying to think of a way to rationalize what had just happened.  
  
"Huh...it got me, too, when I put it on. I think whatever it's made of must collect static electricity, or something. Must be scary for such a little kitty."  
  
Sora nodded, willing to accept this explanation for the large red spark that had jumped from the necklace to the questing paw of the cat. But for the rest of the day, Kichi refused to come out from under the sofa, and shied away from Mimi whenever she saw her.  
  
"I don't understand it!" Mimi wailed for the fifth time as Kichi scurried to the opposite end of the couch, hissing and spitting. "She liked me perfectly well two hours ago, so why is she so scared of me now?"  
  
Sora shrugged. "She's probably afraid she'll get shocked again. Don't worry, I'm sure she'll forget all about it by tomorrow."  
  
"I hope so," Mimi said sadly, plunking herself down on the couch with a sigh.  
  
"Actually, I'm surprised she liked you so well. She's really shy; that's why you didn't see her since you arrived yesterday. She's probably been lurking around just like she is now, watching you and deciding what she thinks of you."  
  
"If you say so," Mimi murmured, leaning back and hugging herself. Since that weird thing had happened to the cat, she'd been feeling...strange. Kind of sick, a queasiness at the pit of her stomach, and floppy, as if she'd stayed up too late the night before and needed sleep.  
  
Sora had gone cheerily into the kitchen, and was now putting a TV dinner in the microwave. "Mom left a note saying she's at a meeting with the consultant for the shop and won't be home until late. You want chicken or beef?"  
  
Mimi sighed again. Groaning, she heaved herself to her feet. "I don't feel much like dinner right now. Can I heat mine up later?"  
  
Sora paused, and stared suspiciously at her. "Are you getting sick?"  
  
"Hmm?" Mimi said, still standing by the sofa. Sora set the TV dinner down and hurried over, looking concerned.  
  
"You look kind of pale. And tired, too. Maybe you should lay down."  
  
"I'm fine," Mimi protested as Sora tried to lay a hand on her forehead for her temperature. "I'm just tired. It's probably the jetlag. I think I need to go to bed now."  
  
Sora blinked. "It's only five-thirty. And you were fine yesterday."  
  
"It just took its sweet time to set in, that's all," Mimi yawned. "I'm serious, Sora, I feel really tired. I'd better turn in for the night."  
  
"Whatever," Sora said, still not convinced. "Your decision...I guess. So, should I leave your TV dinner in the fridge, in case you wake up hungry and need a midnight snack?"  
  
Mimi shrugged. "Sure, if you want to. I don't really care. G'night, Sora."  
  
Sora stared at her friend's retreating back as she headed to the guest room to sleep off her 'jet lag'. Something doesn't add up here, she thought. Mimi loves to eat, and I've never seen her be put off her food by a little thing like jet lag. For that matter, I've never seen her get jet lag! There is definitely something rotten in the state of Odaiba Heights...  
  
  
  
Mimi slid out of her school clothes and into her pajamas like someone in a dream. She left the necklace on, without any real reason, or any real excuse. Pulling back the covers of the bed, she dropped into bed like a stone, and curled up with her teddy bear hugged tightly to her stomach.  
  
"Something's wrong with me," she whispered to the air. "And I don't know what. I hope I'm not getting sick... But I don't really feel sick, not like I ever have before. I just feel...different. Strange. Bad strange, not interesting strange. I don't like this...I don't like it one little bit." Sighing deeply, she yawned and settled into bed, wanting to go to sleep and sleep off this...this jet lag. It's funny, she thought as she felt herself drifting away. I can't remember ever getting jet lag...  
  
Something deep inside the stones of the necklace seemed to glimmer, as though it were laughing at something.  
  
Then, steadily, the glimmer began to pulse, strongly, like the embers of a dying fire being stirred back into life, and then to glow...  
  
All three of the stones lit up, with a dull, gleaming light, a slick, dark-red light that stained the skin of the sleeping girl and the sheets around her in bloody puddles. Something seemed to quest out of the center stone for a moment, something wispy that wound incense-like around her face in a parody of innocent curiosity, and slithered away back into the stone in an instant, like a slurped spaghetti noodle.  
  
The glow dimmed to a softer, less intense dullness, a waiting sort of light, and seemed to be doing nothing more.  
  
Time passed, and lights turned on and off in the rest of the apartment. Sora ate dinner, still nervous somehow, showered, and went to bed. Her mother did not arrive home.  
  
The clock struck midnight.  
  
And the jewel-like beads lit up in a sudden flare of murderously crimson light.  
  
Without opening her eyes, Mimi stirred. Her hands moved on the coverlet, and then pushed it clumsily aside. She sat up in bed, her eyes still closed, and got to her feet, standing barefoot on the soft blue carpet, made dusky midnight-colored by the shadows in the dark room. Padding silently across the carpet, she made her way out of the room, and into the hallway.  
  
Reaching the living room, she paused as if looking around, though her eyes remained tightly shut. The light from the necklace lit the room, making it look like a murder had taken place there as the gleaming pools of red luminescence lay puddled across the furniture.  
  
There was a hiss from under the sofa. Something not belonging to Mimi twisted the corners of her mouth up in an ugly smile.  
  
He had found what he was looking for.  
  
  
  
Mimi looked around herself. She was back, in the place she'd been in before. The desert of dust and rounded hilltops stretched away in every direction. It reminded her of something...of a painting she'd seen when she was a little girl. A painting that had always frightened her, a dull brown painting full of dying, droopy clocks and a twisted tree and a thing that looked like a dead horse with a gray blanket thrown over it, with another of the eerie clocks draped over it... It had been drawn by someone famous, that painting, but it had always given her goosebumps, somehow. Something was wrong with the world in that painting...  
  
Just like there's something wrong with me, Mimi thought. Maybe the answer to my questions is here... Getting to her feet-she'd been sitting in the fine brown dust, and her pajamas were smeared with dull brown-she set out across the barren landscape, devoid of dying clocks and dead horses, yet still eerily like the painting that had given her the shivers, so long ago. She tried to remember which direction she'd gone the last time she'd been here, but her footprints had vanished, inexplicably, into the windless plain. For all she knew, she was miles from the last place she'd showed up in, here. This place seemed to have no boundaries. Still, she knew she had to find that rush of color and sound again, or she might be there forever...  
  
As she reached the base of a hill, she suddenly felt an invisible something! slam into her, horrible, making her double over for a second in nausea. A soft brown light swam against the insides of her eyelids for that second, as her eyes squeezed shut...then the sick feeling, the rolling nausea, the pain that was somehow above and beyond the physical kind was gone, leaving only a terrible weak, wobbly feeling in its wake, as though she had seen something unspeakably repulsive and wrong happen and hadn't quite recovered from the sight yet.  
  
Ohh... Mimi wailed, falling to the dusty ground in a cloud of dust and hugging herself. Something...something awful just happened... She felt like crying, like throwing up, like curling up and sinking into the ground. Help...please...help...  
  
Something was pulling on her, tugging at her. She tried to wrench away, but it pulled harder, whispering her name. No, not whispering it, shouting it...shouting it!  
  
She tried to open her eyes, but they wouldn't. She was floating away...  
  
  
  
Sora's eyes blinked open suddenly as she burst from sleep, sitting up blind with terror and clutching the bedclothes to her.  
  
"No! Go away, leave her alone! Leave me alone!" she screamed, still half trapped in her nightmare world. "Mimi!" Suddenly, she became aware of the room around her. She took deep breaths, trying to calm down. It was just a nightmare, she assured herself, hugging her stuffie and swallowing repeatedly. Just a dream. Dreams aren't real, so there's no reason to worry...  
  
A faint sound from out in the hallway caught at her ears. Glad for the excuse to get out of the room, with its cloying echoes of the nightmare lurking in the corners, she slid out of bed and padded barefoot to the doorway...just in time to hear a soft, choked cry. She whirled-and saw Mimi standing behind her. The girl's eyes were squeezed shut, but as she watched, they flickered open for a split second in an expression of utter pain and terror. The sleepwalking girl let out a whine of fear, high and almost inhuman. Then, her eyes fell shut again as she crumpled to the floor in a heap.  
  
"Mimi!" Sora cried, kneeling next to her friend and shaking her. I knew something bad was happening...I knew it! A flicker of her nightmare ran through her head-Mimi, standing on the front steps of the school as a huge shadow loomed across the pavement toward her...then a flash of red light and a scream. Her face was so white... "Please wake up...please!"  
  
Suddenly, Mimi moaned and curled into a fetal position. Sora shook her friend harder, taking heart. Mimi's face twitched, twisted into a frown. Without warning, she sat bolt upright, missing smashing Sora's nose off by about a centimeter.  
  
"Help!" she shrieked, her eyes wide open now in fear. "Help me! Please..." She realized where she was, and relaxed as suddenly as she had awakened. "Ohhh..." she sighed, wilting with relief. "Don't let me go back there..." Sora hugged her.  
  
"You had a nightmare, Mimi. It's okay now. Nothing can hurt you anymore. It's just a dream."  
  
Mimi looked up at her friend with eyes as sincere as her crest had ever needed her to be. "No, it wasn't," she whispered. "Something bad happened. I felt it."  
  
Sora frowned. "What? You..." Her voice trailed off. "I did too," she breathed, suddenly afraid. "Mom?" she called, standing up. "Mom! Are you home?" She took a few steps toward the living room, squinting to see in the dark hallway. Mimi came to her feet, shakily but surely.  
  
"Don't go in there!"  
  
Sora paused. "What?" she said, looking at Mimi as though she'd grown an extra nose smack in the middle of her forehead. "Why not?"  
  
"I...I don't know," Mimi mumbled. "There's something bad in there. I dreamed it...sort of." Sora rolled her eyes and started toward the door again. "Please, believe me! It's dangerous!" Mimi insisted forlornly. Sora just reached for the doorknob, swinging the door wide.  
  
A minute passed, and nothing happened. Sora gave Mimi a superior look, a little too smug to be very pleasant to look at. "See?" she said, grinning as she reached for the light switch. "I had a nightmare too, but they're not real life, Mimi. There's nothing-"  
  
Her voice dissolved into a scream as the light flicked on, exposing the furry little body sprawled in the middle of the rug.  
  
~*~*~*~ 


	5. Darkness Burrows Deep Within, True Evil ...

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
  
Chapter 4- Darkness Burrows Deep Within, True Evil Is Never Dead  
~*~*~*~  
  
  
"I've never seen anything quite like it," the vet mused, placing his stethoscope back in his bag and frowning up at the three women looking anxiously down at him. "The kitten appears to be in perfectly good health. I could find nothing wrong with her, save a little singed fur around her paw and face. You've already informed her that she received an electrical shock from this young lady's necklace," he said with a gesture to Mimi, who winced at the memory, "but that only accounts for the marks on the fur, not for this...condition.  
  
"This kitten is unharmed, and very much alive...but she hasn't moved at all in the time I've examined her, and will not, from your accounts, be awakened by anything. The only thing even similar to this I've seen in years is post-traumatic shock syndrome: shell shock. But this surpasses even that form of unconsciousness." Shaking his head, he closed the bag and put it away. "We can keep her here for a few days, for observation, but I'm afraid that for now there's nothing we can do."  
  
Sora swallowed hard, and her mother put a hand on her arm.  
  
"Well...I suppose, if that's all you can do to help..."  
  
"I'm very sorry, Miss," the veterinarian said, patting her hand. "It's hard to have a pet hurt like this. I assure you that anything we can do, we will."  
  
Sora gave the vet a wan smile. He was a kind, reserved elderly man who reminded her of her granddad, and he was doing the best he could.  
  
"Thank you," she managed, nodding to him. "I know she's...she's in good hands." Carefully picking up the kitten and giving her a gentle snuggle, she handed her to the vet's aide, who was waiting at his side. "Please take good care of her," she blurted, and hurried out of the room. Mimi followed her, while Mrs. Takenouchi stayed behind to arrange for expenses and so on.  
  
Mimi found Sora slumped in a chair in the waiting room, head in her hands. Quietly slipping into the seat next to her, she patted her shoulder.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
Sora gave her a reproachful look, eyes full of tears. Mimi sighed.  
  
"Sorry. I shouldn't ask obvious questions. How about this one; are you going to be okay?"  
  
There was a short pause, then Sora sniffed and murmured, "I'll live..." She paused, and then dropped her face back into her hands. "She was my first pet," she wailed into her wet fingers, her voice muffled. Mimi gave her an awkward sideways hug from her seat.  
  
"Is your first pet," she corrected, gently taking Sora's hands away from her face and smiling. Sora sniffled, but said nothing. "Oh, come on, girl," Mimi said. "Don't give up yet. You want Tai to gloat forever because his cat is better than yours?"  
  
That got a smile from the girl, however weak and watery. "Miiko? Yeah, right," she said with a snort. "Kichi's cooler than that fat old pumpkin-cat any day!"  
  
"There's the Sora I know!" Mimi joked, giving her hand a squeeze. "Now let's go get your mom. We can grab some lunch on the way home."  
  
Sora sighed, but nodded. "Okay..." She started to say something, then stopped. Mimi's being so nice...but I still can't get the questions out of my head. We both felt somehow that Kichi was being hurt. How did we know?  
  
  
  
How did I know? The question rang in Mimi's mind, all the way to McDonald's, all the way through an hour of picking at a quarter-pounder with cheese, her favorite, and all the way home. She put on a calm front for Sora, who obviously needed a rock to hold on to, but Mimi was starting to wonder exactly how stable this rock was going to be. Her mind was whirling, and she couldn't get the images of the dream out of her mind. Worse, that vaguely tired, sick feeling hadn't gone away-it had only gotten worse. She had also developed a faint but persistent throbbing headache.  
  
I saw nothing in that dream...nothing but dusty dry land and gray sky. How did I know that something had happened? Not to Kichi, but to someone... I felt it! I felt her being attacked, or whatever happened to her. Why? How? Ohh, I need sleep... Yet she was vaguely afraid to go to bed. What if the dream returned? It was only a dream, she reminded herself. But then how did it tell me what happened to Kichi? She sighed, letting her face fall into her hands. I may not be in that dust desert, but I'm as lost as I ever was...  
  
"Mimi?"  
  
She looked up into Mrs. Takenouchi's concerned face. They were seated at the Takenouchi's kitchen table with cups of tea, while Sora lay stretched out on the sofa, watching TV listlessly with Kichi's bed-pillow hugged to her chest.  
  
"Mimi, sweetie, are you all right? You look worn to bare ends. And you barely touched your lunch, or your dinner. That's not like you."  
  
Pasting on the I'm-fine-thank-you-how-are-you? smile that she'd let drop while she was wandering in her own thoughts, Mimi shrugged. "I'm all right. I just have a bit of a headache, that's all. I'll take a Tylenol or something before I go to bed."  
  
"Are you sure?" Mrs. Takenouchi pressed, still not quite convinced. Mimi nodded, wincing inwardly. She hated lying; after all, she was the holder of the Crest of Sincerity. But she didn't think, somehow, that Mrs. Takenouchi, with her down-to-earth, make-sure-to-lock-up-the-shop-before-you-leave sensibilities, would understand what she meant if she tried to explain her thoughts. She didn't even understand them herself, to be honest.  
  
"Don't worry, Mrs. Takenouchi. I'm fine. Just tired."  
  
"Oh, I'd forgotten. You two had a late night last night, didn't you?"  
  
"Not so late as yours," Mimi said politely. Mrs. Takenouchi frowned.  
  
"But not half so stressful as yours. Nightmares, sleepwalking, shell-shocked cats...it's a wonder you both haven't dropped off where you're sitting." Glancing up at the clock, she let out a little exclamation of surprise and dismay. "Well, look at that! While we've all been lying here, stewing in our own misery, it's gotten to be nine-thirty! We'd all better head off to bed, and that includes me. The more sleep for all of us, the better. I have a feeling we're going to need it."  
  
Mimi made a face, but quickly went back to her smile as Mrs. Takenouchi blinked at her. "Ah...okay," she agreed lamely, a nervous feeling welling up in her stomach. Bed? No...she didn't want to go to sleep. She wouldn't. She would stay awake...  
  
But her eyelids were already leaden-heavy, and she was so tired that she had to lean on Mrs. Takenouchi's arm to stay standing on the way to bed. She pajama'ed up quickly and fell into bed, her bear hugged tightly to her, as if it could protect her.  
  
Some minutes later, a shaft of light fell across her face as Mrs. Takenouchi peered in on her. "The poor sweetheart," she chuckled. "Fast asleep already. Sweet dreams, child," she added, and softly closed the door.  
  
  
  
I wouldn't give much chance of that. He chuckled to himself, pleased. All was going well-perfectly, in fact. Even the miserable child herself did not yet suspect; at least, not anything concrete, and certainly not the real danger. All she knew was a vague fear and a series of nightmares. All she will ever know, until it is too late, if I have my way. And he would. He knew it as well as he knew himself. The little strength he'd already gained was enough to begin the replenishing of his energies, to give him the means he needed to obtain more. And he would use those means...tonight.  
  
  
  
The clock struck midnight.  
  
The gems of the necklace lit up in their bloody glow, as Mimi slipped from the bed under a power not her own. The window was open, just a little, and she went to it, sliding it as far open as it would go and climbing out onto the fire escape. The night air was cold, but she didn't shiver, despite her brief nightgown. He was in charge now, and he could feel no cold. Yet...  
  
Red light flickered around her hands, as he raised them to the night. And from the corners, the nooks, the crannies, the subways and the attics of Tokyo, the bats came, fluttering in the alley in a flock like flies around dead meat, their red eyes flashing answering lights at the lights blazing from the jewels of the necklace. They crowded around her, and lifted her into the air. He cast a flickering sphere of red light around them, and when it winked out, the bats and the girl they carried could no longer be seen. But from his vantage point inside the sphere, he saw Tokyo fall away beneath them, and as they drifted down into the back streets and the dark alleys to find his prey, he felt new life arise in him at this return to his element: the night sky.  
  
He had cheated death; he had returned in the last form anyone would expect. Yet it was not his own. This half-existence, this life only in another's absence, was not enough for him. There were better things in store. True evil is never dead, he thought smugly to himself, and commanded his pets to dive.  
  
~*~*~*~ 


	6. Darkness Rears Its Ugly Head, Loved Ones...

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
  
Chapter 5- Darkness Rears Its Ugly Head, Loved Ones and Lost Souls  
~*~*~*~  
  
"Hey, Sats!"  
  
Coming into the skate park just before closing time, Joe found it empty except for himself and the luminously orange-haired figure standing with her back to him by the drinking fountain. When he got no response to his hail and wave, he frowned and called again.  
  
"Satsuma?"  
  
She still didn't answer, or even look up. Concerned, Joe hurried across the hall to her.  
  
"Sats, is something wrong?"  
  
A sound like a choked sob escaped her. Joe swallowed hard, realizing that this was serious, and put a hand on her shoulder.  
  
"What is it? Are you going to be okay?" Still no answer. "Sats, you can tell me. I'm your friend. I care about you."  
  
That tipped the balance. Satsuma burst into tears, turning and burying her face in the front of his jacket.  
  
"It's my cousin!" she wailed. Joe was at a loss as to what he was supposed to do here; he awkwardly patted her head.  
  
"Which one?" he asked, not sure if that was the right thing to say, but willing to wing it. He'd never seen Satsuma like this before, not even the time that she'd broken her leg falling off of the monkey bars in seventh grade. And he'd never, ever expected to see her cry like this. Sats was a trooper; she bit back. You just didn't picture her crying, it was like picturing a flying kumquat.  
  
"Aika," Satsuma said miserably.  
  
"Shoujo? Isn't she in one of Sora's classes?" Joe asked.  
  
"Uh-huh," Satsuma hiccupped. "Home Ec. She's...she's sick..."  
  
Joe sighed. "Well, she'll get better soon, won't she?"  
  
He instantly wished he hadn't asked. Satsuma dissolved into fresh waves of tears. His jacket was beginning to look like he'd spilled a glass of water down the front of it.  
  
"They...don't...know!" she choked. Joe blinked.  
  
"What?"  
  
"The doctors..." Satsuma took a deep breath and calmed down enough to speak. "They say they've never seen anything like it! She's not hurt anywhere, they say, she's just...not moving. Unconscious, you know? Out of it. They can't wake her up. They're keeping her at the hospital just to make sure..." Satsuma was beginning to shake again, and Joe hugged her.  
  
"Well, they are doctors, you know. I'm sure they'll take care of it, and your cousin will be back at school by the time it starts again. Now hush, before you flood the skate park." The sensible, plain words were softened by the gentleness in his voice: a combination that he'd learned to use with Mimi when they'd been traveling around the Digital world in their own little group, years before. She'd always been having these little sob-fests about how she didn't want to fight anymore, and he'd always had to calm her down.  
  
Of course, Mimi had never sobbed into his shirt, so this was a relatively new experience...  
  
Satsuma looked up at him and began to cry again.  
  
"What? What is it?" he asked, trying not to let any impatience creep into his tone.  
  
"It-it's been such an aw-awful d-day," she hiccupped, beginning to run out of energy for crying. She was exhausted; he could see that now. "And now you're being s-so n-nice to me..."  
  
"Not nice," Joe corrected, fishing for his handkerchief. "Supportive. Impressed. You're getting my shirt wet."  
  
Satsuma accepted the proffered handkerchief with a watery smile. "Impressed?" she asked, wiping her eyes and sniffing.  
  
"You're handling this pretty well. This is the first time you've cried about it, isn't it?"  
  
She nodded. "How...how'd you know?"  
  
"The first time's always the worst," Joe said reassuringly. "It's pretty impressive that you didn't completely fall apart."  
  
"Did they teach you how to deal with weepy families in your doctoring classes?" Satsuma said with a rueful smile, handing the kerchief back. Joe stuck it in his pocket.  
  
"You'd better believe it," he said, and gave her hand a squeeze. "She'll be all right. And so will you, unless you drown yourself with all this crying."  
  
"If you ever tell anyone I cried, I'll have you mourning a limb before you can sneeze," Satsuma joked. "Your choice of limb."  
  
"Always the gracious lady," Joe said with a grin. Now I know she'll be all right. She's started threatening people again.  
  
"C'mon, Blue-boy," Satsuma said, heading off toward the door out. "Let's go home."  
  
  
  
"Can you believe it?" Sora said for the tenth time. "Of all people, too. Who on earth would want to hurt Aika Shoujo?"  
  
Mimi shrugged. She was in no mood to speculate on the mysterious fate of Aika. She'd had an almost identical nightmare the night before, and it had included even more pain and fear than last time. Worse, it hadn't ended right after the explosion of pain like the last time; it had dragged on for an eternity of lying helpless and full of agony in the dust.  
  
Her headache had grown worse, and every time she closed her eyes she saw little flickers of brown and green light dancing across the inside of her eyelids. She'd hoped that getting out of the house might wake her up a little, but now that they were at the mall-her favorite place in the world!-all she could think about was going home and getting an ice pack on her poor aching head.  
  
What is wrong with me? she wondered, glancing around the Dairy Duchess booth and then back down at the hot fudge sundae pooling in a puddle of nearly untouched meltage in the bottom of its dish. Picking up her spoon, she stirred it around a few times, lifted a spoonful and let it drizzle back into the dish. She just couldn't work up an appetite, even for chocolate. Sora gave her a by-now-familiar suspicious look over the top of her raspberry sherbet parfait.  
  
"Mimi, are you okay? You've hardly eaten anything in days!" She frowned, obviously gathering up her nerve for something. "Mimi..."  
  
Mimi looked up, suddenly on edge. "What?"  
  
"I'm worried about you. You don't look healthy. Are you..." Sora paused, then barreled on. "Mimi, do you have anorexia?"  
  
Mimi stared at her for a second, and then burst out laughing. "Anorexia? Sora, of course I'm not anorexic. I love eating, remember? I don't think I could be anorexic if I tried!" She grinned. "If I was going to have an eating disorder, I'd be bulimic, trust me."  
  
Sora scowled at her. "That isn't funny."  
  
"You're right." Mimi sighed. "I know I haven't been eating well lately, but I think I just picked up a bug somewhere. I've been really tired, and I have this headache that won't go away. I've tried aspirin, and it doesn't help. I just don't feel much like eating. You know, like when you have the flu. I bet that's all it is."  
  
Sora looked closely at her, but nodded and sighed. "You do look a little green around the gills. Want to go home? You can take a nap."  
  
Mimi's spirits soared at the suggestion of going home, and then plummeted at the mention of sleep. "Uh...I'm not really tired. Just achy. But yes, I would like to go home. If that's all right with you."  
  
"Would I have suggested it if it wasn't?" Sora said genially. "Let's go. And you probably should at least try to sleep. It's good to get lots of rest when you're sick, you know."  
  
"You sound like Joe," Mimi said teasingly, trying to distract Sora before she got off on one of her crusades, to make her take a nap. She never found out if it worked or not, because as they stood up to leave they ran into an even better distraction: Tai and Izzy, coming into the Dairy Duchess.  
  
"Hey, Sora!" Tai called, waving. The girls hurried over, Mimi debating whether this was good or bad. Sora was distracted all right, but this could mean an extension of the wait to go home.  
  
"Hi, Tai! What are you doing here? Hey, Izzy," Sora added as an afterthought. Izzy took the uneven division of interest as good-naturedly as ever, turning to Mimi as Tai and Sora talked.  
  
"Hello, Mimi. You're not exactly glowing with fitness today, are you?" he observed bluntly. Mimi sighed and shook her head.  
  
"You could say that. I think I've got the flu, or something. We were just headed home, in fact."  
  
"Really? That's a raw deal. I hope you feel better by this Friday," Izzy said sympathetically. Mimi blinked.  
  
"This...Friday?"  
  
"Yeah, you know, the lock-in? You are coming, aren't you?"  
  
"Oh, the lock-in!" Mimi said, remembering. The high school was holding a lock-in sleepover for the students who weren't on vacation. "I'm not sure. It depends on how I'm feeling by then, I guess."  
  
"In that case, get better as fast as you can. We never get to see you anymore, now that you're an American girl."  
  
"I'll always be Japanese, Izzy," Mimi said with a smile. She felt better somehow, at least mentally, after Sora and Izzy's friendly concern. Her head still throbbed, but she felt more up to the day now...and maybe even to a nap. After all, Sora was right. Dreams weren't real, and they certainly couldn't hurt you. Her headache was a coincidence, and that was all it was.  
  
  
  
They don't even know that they are doing her more harm than good, he gloated, already almost tasting the night air. A 'sleepover'...that means many children gathered together, all filled with life: exactly what I need. But for now, it will be best to lie low and come out only as we did last night. I need only so many, and the number left to gather will grow one less with each passing night... This 'lock-in' will provide me all that I will require. He chuckled darkly. Until the lock-in, then, sweet Mimi.  
  
  
  
The jewels of the necklace gleamed maliciously, but all four children were distracted with talk and plans for the weeks ahead, and once again, didn't see the one thing that might have saved them, had they only noticed it in time.  
  
~*~*~*~ 


	7. Dark Butterflies Dying Love and Sunspot ...

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
  
Chapter 6- Dark Butterflies; Dying Love and Sunspot Visions  
~*~*~*~  
  
"This is going to be so cool!" Sora jubilated, hanging up the phone from a talk with Satsuma. "I can't believe it, but at least a third of the student body is going to be there! And it's only two days away...I can't wait!" She paused, and then a wicked grin appeared on her face. "You know, I heard Mai telling Yuki that she was going to bring a bottle..."  
  
"Lucky girl. Is Tai coming?"  
  
"He said he was..." Sora leaned over to nudge Mimi, who was stretched out full-length across the sofa on her stomach with her face buried in a pillow. "Are you okay? You don't sound so good. I thought you said you were feeling better."  
  
"I was," Mimi muttered into the pillow. "So I was wrong; I'll be fine by Friday. Don't worry."  
  
Sora blinked, worried about her friend. "Mimi, you haven't been yourself lately. Normally you'd be acting absolutely hyperactive over the idea of a game of spin-the-bottle. You've had this 'flu' for days; do you think it might be something worse?"  
  
Mimi looked up, saw the concern on her friend's face and rolled over onto her back to talk like a civilized person. "I told you, Sora, I'll be fine. I was just tired, and I'm feeling better already, see?" She tried a smile, then rolled back over. "I need to rest up for Friday," she said into the pillow, and shooed her away with one hand.  
  
Sora sighed. She didn't like this whole 'sickness' deal. She fully believed that Mimi had told her the truth when she'd said she didn't have an eating disorder; she trusted her friend. But still, there was definitely something wrong with her. Sora didn't know what, but that wasn't stopping her from being downright nervous about it. Something was niggling at the back of her mind, and she wasn't sure what.  
  
Leaving the room, she crossed to the window in the kitchen to look out at the sunset. It was Wednesday, and she was looking very much forward to the school lock-in. The problem of Mimi, however, was weighing uncomfortably on her shoulders. What if she passed out in the middle of the gym? She'd already fainted once, on Monday. Luckily, they had been at home, and her mother had brought her around with a wet cloth and a few gentle shakes, but it had been a nasty scare for all parties involved, just the same.  
  
She'd spent the day in bed and declared herself 'much better' the next day, but had spent more and more time lying on the sofa in obvious discomfort. They'd tried several headache medicines, but none had helped, and she'd refused to see a doctor, insisting that there was nothing wrong with her that bed rest and time wouldn't fix.  
  
If she keeps insisting that there's nothing wrong, she's going to get seriously sick, and I don't know what to do to make her admit she needs help. I feel helpless...  
  
With a sigh, she did what she usually did when something was bothering her; she reached for the phone to call Tai. It rang several times, but was picked up on the fourth ring and answered in a jaunty male voice.  
  
"Talk to me."  
  
Sora suppressed a giggle. It was Tai, all right.  
  
"Hi, Tai."  
  
"Sora?"  
  
"In the flesh, and worried stiff," she said. "Have you seen Mimi lately?"  
  
"Not since the Dairy Duchess. Why? Is she okay?"  
  
"I don't know." Sora sighed. "I don't think so. Remember how she was a little under the weather?"  
  
"Yeah? Did she get worse?"  
  
"In spades, but she won't admit it. She keeps saying she's fine. Tai, I'm getting scared. She blacked out in the middle of dinner for a few minutes, the day before yesterday."  
  
A pause. "You're kidding."  
  
"Would I kid about something like that?"  
  
"Is she all right? I mean...you know what I mean."  
  
"Yeah, I know. She says she is. I'm not so sure. She spends hours just lying on the couch, but she doesn't fall asleep."  
  
"Watching television?"  
  
"If it was that, I would understand better. She just stares at the ceiling. That's when she doesn't have a pillow over her face."  
  
"Weird."  
  
"Weird doesn't cover it. I don't know if she should come to the lock-in. What if she has complications, or passes it on to somebody?"  
  
"Well, have you or your mom caught it yet?"  
  
"No..."  
  
"I'm not Joe or anything, but I think that probably means it isn't contagious. And as for fainting, the teachers are there for that sort of thing. It's not like she'll be cut off from medical help. Actually, the school is closer to a hospital than your house, if that makes you feel any better."  
  
"Well...I don't know..."  
  
"Look, Sora, Mimi says she's been looking forward to this for a while."  
  
A sigh. "Mimi says a lot of things."  
  
"Just let her decide, okay? Maybe all she needs is to get out of the house for a while."  
  
"Hmm...good point. For that matter, she hasn't been outside all day. We could go for a walk or something."  
  
"Aren't you afraid she'll collapse in an alley?"  
  
"Ta-ai..."  
  
"Okay, okay. I was kidding. Hey, see you at the lock-in, if not sooner, okay?"  
  
"Sounds good. I think I'll ask her if she feels up to that walk, then."  
  
"Have fun. See you."  
  
"Bye."  
  
Sora hung up with a pleased look on her face, and then headed into the living room.  
  
"Mimi?"  
  
Mimi didn't answer. Sora walked over to check on her; she was lying on her back again, staring at the ceiling. Crossing her arms, Sora gave a little stomp of one foot.  
  
"Mimi!"  
  
"Huh? Wha...oh, it's you, Sora." Mimi jerked 'awake', turning to look at her friend. She sounded vague, and tired. "What is it?"  
  
"I was wondering if you'd like to go for a walk," Sora said with a firmness in her voice that made it clear she wasn't settling for a 'no'. Mimi looked at her as though she had suddenly turned into a chicken.  
  
"A walk?" she said in disbelief. Sora nodded.  
  
"You need to get out of the house. Lying here obviously isn't helping you at all. Maybe what you need is some fresh air."  
  
Mimi sat up far enough to look out the window. "But it's dark outside."  
  
"It's called streetlights," Sora said dryly. "And my mom won't be home for hours. We've already eaten, now let's go walk it off." She chose not to mention that there wasn't really anything for Mimi to walk off; Mimi had, as usual, barely touched her dinner. That wasn't enough to dissuade Sora, though.  
  
Mimi groaned and put a pillow over her face. "I'm too tired."  
  
"We're not going on a cross-country run, Mimi," Sora said impatiently, reaching over to pull the pillow away. It was immediately replaced by another pillow.  
  
"We're not going at all," Mimi insisted from behind the second pillow. Sora grabbed that one, too.  
  
"I'm talking about a nice, quiet stroll around the block. Now get up." Making short work of Mimi's third and last pillow, she grinned and threw it across the room along with the other two. "You're out of pillows. Now what?"  
  
In answer, Mimi rolled over onto her face again. Sora glared at her friend's back.  
  
"I swear, you're turning into a sloth. Get up." When Mimi didn't answer, Sora planted herself on the edge of the couch and leaned over to whisper into Mimi's ear. "Get...UP!" She yelled the second word, and Mimi started in surprise, then rolled over to glare right back at her.  
  
"You're on another crusade, aren't you."  
  
"Yup."  
  
"And you're not going to leave me alone until I go for a walk with you."  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Fine, then I might as well give in gracefully," Mimi said, getting to her feet with a groan. Sora snorted as she stood up, too.  
  
"I'd say it's a little late for that."  
  
As they left the apartment, Sora glanced at Mimi's sulking face.  
  
You know, this had better work, or this walk is going to be pretty miserable for us both...  
  
  
  
This was not in my plans! This night's prey was dearly needed! How dare she fool with my arrangements?! Pausing, he let reason take control again. Cold judgment was better than hot rage in the long run. Hmm...but, who is to say this night must be a waste? This meddling brat will not get away with trifling with my carefully laid plans; she will augment them! She will pay, and dearly. You wish your friend to be cheerful, Sora? So be it.  
  
  
  
Mimi stumbled suddenly, leaning against a tree for support. Sora turned, concerned.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
Mimi shook her head, frowning. "Huh...sorry about that. I must have tripped. I'll be fine, thanks." Straightening, she smiled radiantly, and Sora nodded, continuing to walk. As the girls reached the first corner, Sora snuck a peek sidewise at Mimi; she was smiling slightly, as if at some private joke, and walking surefooted, unlike her tired walk she'd been using lately.  
  
Good...it's about time she cheered up. I'm glad I thought of this.  
  
They turned the corner and went on. Halfway around the block, Mimi's eyes suddenly lit up.  
  
"Ooh! Did you hear that?"  
  
"Hear what?" Sora said, in confusion. Mimi grinned.  
  
"I heard a meow! I think there's a kitten in there!" She pointed at an alley they were passing. Sora's face crumpled, and Mimi looked suddenly mortified. "Oh, Sora, I'm sorry! I forgot...but...oh, please?"  
  
"I don't know..." Sora said. She wasn't sure that wandering into a strange alley was a good idea... But what if I'm just being a prig because my kitten is hurt? I shouldn't burst Mimi's bubble just because I miss Kichi... "Oh, all right," she allowed. Mimi looked delighted.  
  
"All right! C'mon!" Grabbing Sora's hand, she ran down the alley.  
  
The alley proved a lot longer than Sora had expected, and turned a corner into another alleyway that ran between the backs of several apartment buildings. The first few floors of each building were windowless, and Sora found herself becoming nervous. What if something bad happens to us? No one will be here to see... Mimi seemed to be looking around for something, probably the kitten. As they reached the end of the alley, Mimi stopped, her back to Sora.  
  
Sora shrugged. "Sorry, Mimi. I guess there's no kitten after all. Let's go, okay? This place makes me nervous."  
  
Mimi didn't turn around. Sora scowled. "Don't sulk, Mimi. Let's get out of here."  
  
"No," Mimi said. Sora stared at her.  
  
"What? Mimi, don't be stupid! This place is dark, and deserted! It's not safe. I should never have let you drag me into it. I'm leaving."  
  
"You're not going anywhere," Mimi said darkly. She turned suddenly and moved between Sora and the rest of the alley, blocking her escape.  
  
"Cut it out! This isn't funny!" Sora cried. Has she gone nuts? What does she think she's doing?!  
  
"You're right, you know," Mimi said, grinning in a way that was not her own. "You shouldn't have let me take you here. A pity you trust your friends so much."  
  
"Mimi, stop it!" Sora said, beginning to panic. Mimi stepped forward and grabbed her wrists, pulling Sora's face close to her own.  
  
"I'm not Mimi," she whispered, and her eyes suddenly flared red.  
  
  
  
He was standing on the steps to the school courtyard, but the place before him was not the school. It was like a concrete box, with flickers of red playing across the walls. It milled with people, but they were all strangely pale...no, not pale. They were gray, and almost transparent. They all had mournful expressions, and a few were crying.  
  
Where am I?  
  
Something brushed his ankles, and he looked down. It was a kitten, and it mewed plaintively up at him as he looked at it.  
  
That's Sora's cat...what's it doing here?  
  
Suddenly, he realized that not all of the people here were gray. One of them still retained color, however faded. She vanished behind a group of people as he looked, and he ran forward, pushing between and through the people around him. They felt like clouds, damp and barely there. One of the crying girls tried to grab his shirt, as if hoping to escape with him, but her hand passed through him. He recognized her face as he passed; she was Aika Shoujo.  
  
He passed through a cluster of people, and there she was, suddenly before him...  
  
Mimi. As he stared at her, she turned and looked him straight in the eyes, pleading in her face. He reached out to her, and suddenly a shape burst from her, as she let out a scream...no, two screams, two voices wailing in unison. His ears ached, and his hand passed through the figure that had appeared, looking at him with hopeless eyes, her voiceless mouth echoing the sound issuing from Mimi's lips.  
  
Sora? Sora!  
  
  
  
"NO!" Tai yelled, sitting up suddenly in bed, drenched in cold sweat. Gasping for breath, he ran the dream through his head. What he could remember was strange and gray and... "Sora." he whispered. "Something bad happened to Sora...."  
  
Suddenly, a horrible feeling of premonition hit him like a sledgehammer. Jumping out of bed, he grabbed his jacket and shoes and ran out the door in the direction of Sora's apartment, not bothering to wake anyone up and tell them where he was going.  
  
Reaching the apartment building where Sora lived, he burst in, ignoring the startled, sleepy doorman, and ran up the stairs. He banged desperately on the door, and was answered by Mrs. Takenouchi.  
  
"Where's Sora?" he demanded as she looked out at him.  
  
"She left a note on the table saying she and Mimi were going on a walk," Sora's mother said, confused. Tai went white, and turned to go. "What is it?" she pleaded, and he turned back to her.  
  
"I think something terrible's happened to her," he said, and began to leave again.  
  
"What?" she exclaimed, and grabbed her jacket. Her shoes were still on; she'd just gotten home. "Wait for me!"  
  
The two of them ran out into the street, Tai leading the way. As they reached the alley, a faint sound came from inside it.  
  
It sounded like a moan. Tai stopped short, listening, and ran into the alley without further hesitation, Sora's mother following some distance behind him.  
  
"No!" Hearing Tai's cry, she ran faster. As she reached the end of the alley, she spotted him kneeling next to an inert form. Her heart rose into her throat, and she ran faster, hoping against hope that she wouldn't see what she was suddenly expecting...  
  
Ice congealed in her stomach as she recognized the bodies of Sora and Mimi lying unconscious on the ground. Falling to her knees next to Tai, she touched her daughter's face.  
  
"Sora...please wake up! Sora!"  
  
Tai was shaking her, but she wasn't waking up. Tears blurring his vision, he turned away and tried to wake Mimi, unable to look any more at his best friend's cold face. Mimi groaned and murmured something faintly, and hope leaped in his throat.  
  
A few people had straggled into the alley after them: the doorman, a secretary from the front desk, a man who had been out on a late-night jog. The doorman was calling 911 on his cell phone. The jogger shook his head.  
"That's the sixth and seventh this week to be attacked in a back alley," he commented to the secretary, who looked stricken.  
  
Mimi's eyes blinked open, and she suddenly let out a scream.  
  
"What? What is it?" Tai said urgently, grabbing her hands. "What happened?"  
  
"Keep him away!" she screamed wildly, her eyes squeezed shut. "Don't let him do this anymore! Make him let me go! The bats...the bats! Help me!!" Her voice broke, and she whispered, "Help me," again, as tears ran down her face. The secretary was crying, too, and Sora's mother looked numb. As an ambulance skidded up at the mouth of the alley, siren wailing, Tai let his face fall into his hands.  
  
Sora...Mimi...why?  
  
  
  
Foolish children, all of them...it is almost entertaining to watch them cogitate uselessly over each other. My strength is nearly returned, and yours is failing. It is only a matter of time now, sweet Mimi...only a matter of time...  
  
Deep within the necklace, someone began to laugh...  
  
~*~*~*~ 


	8. The Harvest of Darkness, the Portal in t...

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
  
Chapter 7- The Harvest of Darkness, the Portal in the Air  
~*~*~*~  
  
By the time Mimi and Mrs. Takenouchi returned home, it was morning. The diagnosis had been the same as that of all the others who had been struck down by this terrible, invisible attacker; the police were sure now that it was a person doing this, and not a strange illness or some such thing. Mimi's terrified screams at the scene of the crime had put the clincher on that. The officers that had heard the testimonies of the bystanders had repeatedly told her that she had been very brave, and a great help to them.  
  
But...I can't remember even a bit of that now... All I get is waking up in the hospital. They told me I was incoherent, that I screamed about someone holding me, not letting me go, about butterflies and terrible blue eyes hurting me, killing me... The doctors said my shock symptoms were like those of a rape victim, but there were no signs of molestation on either of us. I can't remember any of it; it's like every time I try to remember, someone slams a heavy door on the knowledge and locks me out...  
  
What is happening to me?!  
  
She'd been kept a few hours for observation, and then let go. She was still numb and stunned as Mrs. Takenouchi loaded her into the car and took her home, as she called TK and Matt's mom to come over and keep a close, protective eye on Mimi, as Nancy arrived and Mrs. Takenouchi left again to return to the hospital.  
  
Tai had stayed behind to be with Sora, 'in case she wakes up and wants to see a familiar face,' as he had put it. That forlornly hopeful statement had come the closest of anything that night to making Mimi burst into tears, but it seemed as though she couldn't cry...nothing that had happened had brought a single tear to her eyes. Mrs. Takenouchi, Nancy, even Tai, had all shed tears, but Mimi's eyes were dry. She felt detached from the things around her, somehow. This might have been shock, but it might also have been that her headache had gotten to the point where she was having difficulty thinking. She did not tell this to the doctors, however, and they put her shakiness down to lingering symptoms of shock.  
  
My legs feel like a newborn calf's...but my soul feels a thousand years old. What is wrong with me?  
  
Standing in her room dressed in her nightgown, Mimi stared into her mirror, her bare feet cold in the chilly room. Nancy had settled herself in the living room with a book, having dropped TK's off at his father's for the night, and had put Mimi to bed early. Somehow, the kind woman's usually comforting presence made no more dent in Mimi's shell of numbness than her tears had.  
  
As she looked at her face, Mimi found herself seeing a different girl than the one she had seen two weeks before. Her face was thin and drawn, waiflike and pale against the bright green of her nightgown. Her hair hung limply, looking dull and tired, and there were shadows beneath her eyes. The color had gone out of her lips and cheeks, and she stood like someone trying to stay on their feet in the midst of a hurricane, about to fall and be swept away, screaming into the uncaring wind.  
  
What happened to Tachikawa Mimi, the happy, healthy girl who was giggling about vacation and secret admirers just a few days ago? she thought forlornly, a wretched wish to lie down and never get up again washing over her in a wave of desperation...  
  
Suddenly, it was as if a light had turned on in her mind. "Secret admirer..." she whispered, her staring gaze moving from her face...to the hollow of her neck. Her face went from gray to white with sudden enlightenment and fear, and her hand went up to touch the stones of the beautiful necklace.  
  
"You," she said softly. The necklace suddenly seemed sinister, somehow, as it gleamed bloodily up at her from around her neck. "All this began after I found you. Somehow, you've been doing this to me! The headache, the attacks, the dreams..."  
  
Turning from the mirror, she reached for the clasp.  
  
"The nightmare ends here," she whispered, and pressed the catch.  
  
Nothing happened. "What?" Mimi exclaimed, fiddling with the clasp. "Come on, you stupid thing, open!" she wailed, her voice rising to a desperate squeak as she worried at the stuck catch. Giving up on the catch, she yanked on the necklace itself, trying to break it. No luck. Her eyes scanned the room despondently...and lit on a pair of sewing scissors, sitting on her dressing table.  
  
"Aha!" she cried triumphantly, and snatched them up, grabbing the necklace and facing the mirror. Opening them and positioning them around the necklace's soft yellow braid, she snipped-  
  
And a flash of light exploded behind her eyelids as she was thrown backward onto the bed. Shaking her head in a stupor, she sat up dizzily, reaching up to feel the severed ends of the necklace falling from her neck...  
  
It was still there, lying whole in a snake's embrace around her neck.  
  
Stumbling to her feet with a wail, Mimi grabbed the scissors and hacked at the necklace futilely. It did not shock her again, but the sharp blades made as much progress as if the necklace had been woven of strands of diamond. Frantic tears welled up in her eyes, and she began to sob, sawing hopelessly at her shackle. Dropping to her knees before the mirror, the scissors tumbled from her suddenly limp hands and slid across the carpet to a stop against the bureau. She covered her hands with her face, breathing the heavy, sobbing breaths of fear and helplessness.  
  
"Please..." she cried brokenly into her hands, "just leave me alone! Just leave me alone..."  
  
A dark light lit the room for a moment, and she looked up, startled...  
  
To see, not her own tear-streaked reflection in the mirror, but a pair of malicious blue eyes looking back at her with twisted pleasure shining in them like a cold flame, and the three stones of the necklace burning beneath them.  
  
Her scream brought Nancy running, and as light flooded the room, the image in the mirror vanished as if it had never been.  
  
Mimi's prone body lay across the floor, dry sobs racking it as she ran out of tears to shed. Nancy knelt next to her, gently touching her shoulder.  
  
"Mimi, sweetie, what happened?"  
  
Mimi looked up at her kind babysitter, her face wet and splotchy. "He's got me, Nancy," she whispered, her eyes hopeless. "He's got me, and he'll never let me go. Not me, or Sora, or Aika, or anybody. Ever..."  
  
"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry," Nancy said, gathering the girl into her kneeling lap and rocking her lanky form slowly. "I'm so sorry this happened to you... You must have had a nightmare. I could just obliterate that man right now for what he did to you two..." She sighed, regaining her composure. "But that's not in my jurisdiction. Well, whoever he was, he won't hurt you anymore. We're all watching out for you. I promise, you're safe now. I promise."  
  
Mimi looked up at her with lonely eyes. "You don't understand..."  
  
"But I'm trying, sweetie, I really am. And when you feel better, you can try to explain it to me, but for now, you need your rest. A nightmare won't hurt you. Now please, go to sleep. If you're better by tomorrow, Sora's mother and I think you should go to that lock-in. It'll take your mind off of all of this for a while."  
  
She picked up the physically and spiritually exhausted girl and carried her to her bed, setting her down and tucking her in like a little child. Mimi wanted to protest, to shout, 'No, you truly don't understand, you're all in danger, I can't go to that sleepover, stop treating me like a child and listen to me!', but her body had gone limp, and she could hardly move for tiredness.  
  
Please, Nancy, stop and listen...for Matt and TK's sake, don't try to mother me too! she thought desperately, but Nancy couldn't hear her, and her mouth would not respond. Fighting tooth and nail against the force dragging her down, she lost her grip on the last strand of the world left in her grasp and fell spiraling into the abyss of sleep...  
  
Brushing a strand of hair out of the sleeping girl's eyes, Nancy smiled sadly down at her. "Sleep, sweet, and dream of a kinder world than this one," she whispered, and left the room, closing the door softly behind her.  
  
  
  
Staring out the window of the car, Mimi watched the streets of Tokyo whiz by, only half listening to the quiet talk of the rest of the teens stuffed into the back seat with her. The city streaming away behind her almost before she saw it approaching held her mind with a strange fascination.  
  
The story of my life, she thought ironically. Swept along without time to react, like a water-skier being dragged along on the end of her rope, unable to get my feet back under me...helpless. Sighing, she let her eyes drift shut. She had not dreamt at all the afternoon and night before, and had slept in that morning. Oddly enough, her head had stopped hurting since the night before, and while she was glad it hadn't gotten worse, she wasn't sure that the dull numbness she felt now was really an improvement, or just a sign of more injury... Nancy had proclaimed her ok to go, and she had been packed up and packed off before she could say 'Wait a minute...'  
  
And here she was, on her way to the lock-in with the rest of the high school Digidestined, piled in the back of Joe's friend's brother's car. The friend herself, a girl Mimi didn't know that the others called Satsuma, was driving and eating an orange at the same time: a juggling act that made Mimi's hair stand on end, but that her friends appeared to be used to. Everyone else was talking in hushed tones about trivial things, carefully avoiding the subject of Sora.  
  
None of the Digidestined had quite gotten over the loss of one of their own; the attacks happening around the city had been tragic, but they had also been comfortably distant for everyone but Joe, who had had to deal with Satsuma. Suddenly, they were real to them...all too real.  
  
They pulled up in front of the high school as the edge of the sun touched the cityscape horizon, letting loose a wash of blood-red light to fill the sky. Piling out of the car, the sight of their friends milling around the front door cheered them all up immensely-all but Mimi-and they hurried forward to greet them. Izzy, Joe, Satsuma and Matt disappeared quickly into the crowd, but Tai hung back for a minute. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Mimi since the hospital people had spirited her away the day before.  
  
"Mimi?" he said hesitantly, reaching out to touch her shoulder. She looked up at him, her eyes beginning to fill again.  
  
"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice choked, and he pulled her into a hug.  
  
"Don't be," he said as gently as he could. Mimi swallowed hard.  
  
"I have to be," she said in return. Tai pulled back, confused. The look in her eyes was genuine; she wasn't making fun of him.  
  
"Then I do, too," he said. Mimi sighed.  
  
"But it wasn't your fault," she said. Tai blinked, now completely bewildered.  
  
"It wasn't yours either."  
  
Mimi only looked at him. Tai swallowed.  
  
"I...don't understand..."  
  
Mimi started to turn away, but stopped and glanced back at him.  
  
"I need to talk to you. I'll explain...later. In the staff room?"  
  
Tai opened his mouth to reply, just as Matt ran up and grabbed his arm.  
  
"Come on, Tai, they're opening the doors! If you want a good place to stake out camp with the rest of us, we have to hurry!"  
  
The trio ducked into the flow of people crushing through the front doors, even Mimi almost getting caught up in the party atmosphere for the moment. Tai managed a nod and thumbs-up to Mimi before they were swept into the foyer and met up with Joe, Izzy, and Satsuma keeping space for them. They'd managed to lay claim to and defend a nice little corner, complete with a small bench bolted to the floor, and had spread their blankets and camping mattresses all around it.  
  
"A little help here?" Satsuma said cheerfully, beating off a would-be squatter with a pillow. Tai and Matt grinned and dropped their gear against the wall, joining her with their own pillows to defend the borders of their 'territory' from the surge and flow of kids trying to find a place to stash their stuff. Joe and Izzy were working on home improvement, setting up the blankets and mattresses in a good six-person configuration around the bench, with room for backpacks and the bench itself left clear for playing slap-in card games.  
  
Mimi sank down in the very corner, hugging her little pink duffel to her stomach. She had tapped the very dregs of her resolve to get up the nerve to talk to Tai, but she knew she had to tell somebody her suspicions, and he was the most likely to listen, and to believe...  
  
A pillow flew past her, hitting the wall and sliding down into her lap, and a second later was almost joined there by Matt as he stumbled and came close to falling at a particularly vicious blow from the guy he was holding off. He managed to land in an awkward sitting position next to her, instead, and grinned sheepishly.  
  
"Sorry about that...can I have my pillow back?"  
  
Mimi looked down at the pillow in her lap, and up at the slightly breathless boy sitting next to her. Shrugging, she handed it to him and went back to staring up at the skylight that filled the ceiling of the foyer, her eyes blank and sad.  
  
Matt frowned. He opened his mouth to ask, shut it again, and sighed and stood up. Something is wrong...but I guess it's not really any of my business to ask her about it. It's probably Sora; if she's half as miserable as Tai's been about that whole business, then I can understand why she seems a little distant. Still, Tai is loosening up...you know, healing. From the way Mimi's acting, she isn't. I hope she'll be okay...  
  
A pillow to the back of the head shattered his worried thoughts, and he whirled, menacingly brandishing his pillow at the foyer in general.  
  
"You want a piece of me?" he bellowed to the guy who'd beaned him, who now seemed to be seriously reconsidering his actions...either that, or trying not to wet himself. "Come and get it!"  
  
The ensuing mayhem blended right into the rest of the craziness going on in the foyer, which was all beginning to blur into one mass of moving color in Mimi's tired eyes...  
  
  
  
The little wench is more powerful than I expected...and she has scored a victory against me, unless I can stop her in time. I cannot let her inform the Digibrats' leader of my existence before I can make my harvest!  
  
But wait... I intended to take control as she slept, as usual...but why can I not force her to the Shadowlands while she is conscious, as I did to capture her friend? My strength is far more than halfway returned to me, and it will not bear any differently on the execution of my plan.  
  
Very well. It will take reserves of my power, but I can easily replenish them once I am in control. I am as strong as you now, sweet Mimi, and stronger with every soul I take. You are weakening, your body breaking at the seams from the burden of too many souls fighting to be free. Your use to me is only as a conveyance and a container, and both uses are almost at an end.  
  
Soon the container will be allowed to spill free...  
  
  
  
The foyer had settled into relative calm as the students all found their own little niches, either there or in the gym or the auditorium, and the Digidestined and Satsuma were engaged in a riotous game of Spoons, playing with pencils as the 'spoons'. As Satsuma dove for the last pencil along with Matt and Joe, Tai and Izzy laughed hysterically at the heap of struggling teenagers. Mimi was staring off into space, not really seeing the fight. The sunset was almost dead, leaving only faint trails of bloody light across the sky, and the first of the stars were winking through the dark blue curtain of the night.  
  
Emerging at the top of the heap with the pencil clenched triumphantly in her fist, Satsuma let out a jubilant victory cry...and glanced down to see what Tai and Izzy were rolling around laughing at, to realize that the three of them were stacked tangled together, Matt on the bottom, sprawled gasping flat on his stomach, with Joe sitting squarely on his back, still grabbing for the pencil, and Satsuma in his lap, holding it high above their heads in a game of keep-away.  
  
Joe noticed this amusing arrangement at about the same time that she did, and the pyramid disintegrated in a mad scramble to opposite sides of the circle of players, with Joe blushing furiously and Satsuma helplessly laughing at the expression on his face while Matt lay gasping like a beached fish, trying to force the air back into his lungs. Tai and Izzy completely broke up at this, and the circle took several minutes to calm down.  
  
Lying back on his inflatable mattress and grinning, his stomach comfortably sore from laughter, Tai noticed Mimi still sitting staring into space, her face solemn.  
  
"Hey, Mimi, what's wrong?" he said concernedly. "You haven't gotten a single spoon all this time, and you're not even smiling at these bozos' antics!" He accompanied the words with a gesture toward Satsuma and Joe, who glanced at each other and snorted.  
  
"Nothing's wrong," Mimi insisted vaguely. "Izzy hasn't gotten any spoons either, anyway."  
  
"Yeah, but at least I've been trying," Izzy said, rubbing ruefully at a sore spot on his arm from an accidental kneeing by Satsuma, who had most of the pencils. Joe had one, and Matt and Tai each had a few, but Izzy had neither Matt and Tai's athletic strength nor Joe's reach nor Satsuma's free-for-all fighting abilities, and therefore had no pencils, either.  
  
"Hey, if at first you don't succeed..." Satsuma said with a grin. Izzy scowled at her.  
  
"What if you're in danger of being seriously maimed if you try again?"  
  
Satsuma shot back something sarcastic, and an argument began in full force. Mimi took advantage of the distraction to lean over and whisper to Tai.  
  
"Can we have that talk now?"  
  
Satsuma froze instantly mid-sentence, a grin a mile wide on her face.  
  
"Hey, all right! We'll guard the door, hmm?"  
  
Joe rolled his eyes. "Ignore Satsuma. It's past her bedtime, and she's a little woozy." Satsuma glowered at him, and he flinched. "Hey, sorry, sorry..."  
  
"Well, aren't you interested?" Satsuma inquired.  
  
"I didn't hear what she said," Joe said pointedly. Satsuma shrugged.  
  
"Just because you're not good at eavesdropping doesn't mean you get out of helping me guard the door. They want to have a talk." She smiled sweetly at Mimi.  
  
Mimi groaned, but Tai caught her arm and spoke under his breath. "I don't care what she thinks we're doing, having anyone as a door guard would be good if you want privacy."  
  
Glancing up to see if Satsuma had heard this, Mimi saw Joe holding both hands over the struggling girl's ears. Noticing her looking at them, he let go of one ear to give her a thumbs-up, and quickly clapped it back into place as Satsuma made a bid for freedom. "And Joe won't let her listen in on us," Mimi said with a smile, catching on. "Okay, then, let's go."  
  
Standing up, they beckoned to the others, who stood up with them, and slipped out of the foyer toward the teachers' lounge.  
  
  
  
Closing the door softly behind him on the other four playing Egyptian Rat Screw with Satsuma's cards, having deemed it less dangerous than Spoons (but not by much, given a general tendency to slap in too hard), Tai turned to Mimi, who was sitting on the sofa, hugging her knees.  
  
"So, you wanted to tell me something?" he said, walking over and taking a seat next to her.  
  
Mimi took a deep breath. This was harder than she had thought it would be. It was as though some force was physically holding back her words. Swallowing convulsively, she forced them out.  
  
"I...I wanted to tell you..."  
  
"Yeah?" Tai said, looking confused.  
  
"I..." Her hand involuntarily reached up to play with the necklace. Realizing what she was doing, she jerked her hand away as if stung. "I wanted to say that...that..." Come on, Mimi, spit it out! she rebuked herself. "That...I'm really sorry about what happened to Sora." Moron!  
  
"But...you already said that," Tai said, frowning. What is wrong with her? She's been hiding something, these last few days...is she trying to tell me what it is?  
  
"And..." Her throat seized up for a minute, and she scowled furiously. It's trying to shut me up! Bug off, you bastidge piece of jewelry! A surge of strength ran through her. "And I think I know what caused it," she said in a rush.  
  
Tai's eyes widened. "What?!" he exclaimed, grabbing her shoulders, hope flaring in his eyes. "What was it? What happened? Did you remember?"  
  
"No, I...I deduced it. I figured it out," she explained, seeing the confusion in his eyes. "See, I...found this necklace, and I think..." She paused for a minute, seeming to be struggling with something.  
  
"You think what?" Tai said, giving her a little shake. "Say it, Mimi!"  
  
"I think..." The force was no longer trying to shut her up, it was trying to...expand, somehow. Like...like the night before, when it had pulled her down into sleep, only this time it wasn't pulling, it was pushing...  
  
Pushing her out...of herself?!  
  
Panicking, she blurted, trying to get the words out in time, before it completed its task...  
  
"Tai, you're in danger, you have to get out of here! I think *I'm* the-"  
  
The terror and desperation on her face suddenly vanished, as suddenly as her voice had stopped a split second before. Tai frowned, drawing back at the suddenly smug expression she now wore.  
  
I've never seen Mimi smile like that...  
  
"Mimi?"  
  
The smile that wasn't Mimi's widened. "Mimi isn't here right now."  
  
"What?!"  
  
"That's what those so-called frightening movies you humans watch would have me say, isn't that right, Taichi?"  
  
Tai stood slowly up, staring at his friend. "What's wrong with you? Is this your idea of a joke? It's not like you to kid about something like this!"  
  
"Oh, Taichi, I've already explained this to you. I'm not Mimi."  
  
Tai stared at her face for a long moment. That smile was definitely not Mimi's. Was she possessed, or something? That sort of thing happened in the movies; he'd seen it, but it was supposed to stay there, not happen to real people. Then again, things had a way of happening to him and his friends; look at the Digital World...  
  
"Then...who are you?" Tai said guardedly. This was getting creepier by the second. Mimi's face became solemn.  
  
"Why should I tell you? I think it should be obvious."  
  
"Look, leave her alone, okay?" Tai said angrily. "Get...get out of her, or whatever. She never did anything to you!"  
  
"Oh, but she did. All of you did..." the thing in Mimi said, with an angry, smug satisfaction in 'her' voice. "Or don't you remember?"  
  
"No," Tai said, frowning. Gotta get out of here... What's this thing planning to do to us? To me? To Mimi?!  
  
"I'm starting to think you don't know who you're dealing with, Taichi," 'Mimi' said reproachfully. Tai blinked. Something had just flown past the window.  
  
Was that a...bat?  
  
"I don't," he said bluntly. "All right, let's play your game. Who am I dealing with?"  
  
'Mimi' paused, leaning back leisurely against the couch, seeming to savor the moment...and then her sweet hazel eyes flared red, as a black form landed on the sill.  
  
"The Digimon that wouldn't die," she drawled, with a soft, all-too-familiar chuckle.  
  
Tai's eyes widened, and he took a stumbling step back in spite of himself. Another black, winged shape landed on the sill, and another. He backed toward the door, hoping for a chance to make a break for it...  
  
"I don't think so, Taichi...Crimson Lightning!"  
  
Leaping from the sofa in a swift, fluid motion, a pair of crackling red whips shot from Mimi's hands. Tai turned and ran. He made it almost to the door before the whips snapped around him, yanking him backwards. His chin snapped forward, and he saw stars for a second...and as they cleared, he saw Mimi's face, blazing eyes boring into him. He had been pulled right back to the couch, and was held tightly against her, unable to escape.  
  
"It's very rude to run out on a lady, Taichi," it hissed through Mimi's teeth, as a flock of bats rose behind the glass of the window, blotting out the moonlight. "I think you need to be taught a lesson in chivalry."  
  
Tai felt something pull at him, at a part of him that wasn't physically existent, and the being grinned. A faint, warm red light-the light of his soul-began to coalesce around his face, being pulled toward the necklace Mimi wore...  
  
"No!!" he yelled, and pulled away, just far enough to free one arm and slam it with all his strength into her head. Mimi staggered back, hand to her head; the lightning whips retracted into her palms, leaving scorch marks on skin not meant to withstand the use of such powers. Turning, Tai bolted out of the room and slammed the door, leaning against it and shouting at the top of his lungs.  
  
"Run, you guys, run! He's back, Myotismon is back, he's got Mimi, you've got to get out of here!"  
  
"What?!"  
  
"You're kidding!"  
  
"Mimi?!"  
  
"What's a Myotismon-hey!"  
  
Joe had jerked Satsuma to her feet, sending cards flying, before she could finish her sentence.  
  
"C'mon, we've got to move! Don't ask, just run!"  
  
"What, you're just going to leave Mimi?" Matt yelled angrily. Tai turned to glower at him.  
  
"There's nothing we can do for her right now, Matt! You would have to wait for the worst possible time for you to decide you want to be a rebel again!"  
  
"I'm not going anywhere!" Matt said, crossing his arms. Izzy and the others were sending nervous looks at the closed door behind Tai, from which were coming eerie squeaks and fluttering noises.  
  
"You're coming with us and that's final, now get your butt in gear!" Tai yelled, and grabbed his arm, taking off down the hallway. Izzy grabbed his other arm, and between them they bodily dragged Matt off down the hallway, with Joe and Satsuma at their heels.  
  
"What the heck is a Myotismon?!" Satsuma said angrily to Joe, who was looking more frightened than she was.  
  
"It's a-"  
  
The door exploded outward, and a cloud of bats spilled into the corridor, screaming and squeaking as they flew toward the fleeing teens.  
  
"Never mind," Joe gasped, running faster.  
  
"Gross!" Satsuma shrieked as she spotted the bats. "Okay, I'm done asking! Let's get out of here!"  
  
Matt was still struggling, slowing Tai and Izzy down. They were losing the bats, but way too slowly... "Let...me...go!" he yelled, trying to wrench out of their grip.  
  
"Matt, if you don't shut up and run, I'm going to knock you out, or something!" Tai yelled back. "We're practically carrying you anyway, and at least you won't be trying to escape anymore!"  
  
Izzy dug in his feet, trying to lever Matt along the corridor faster. "Matt, you know I mean this in the nicest of ways, but right now, you're being a real pain in the-"  
  
A cry from behind them made Izzy stop talking and look over his shoulder. They'd gotten a good three hallways between them and the bat cloud, so how could it have caught up fast enough to reach them?  
  
One look answered him; it hadn't. Joe, however, had tripped and was sprawled across the linoleum, gasping for air with the breath knocked out of him. Satsuma skidded to a stop next to Tai and Co., looking terrified.  
  
"Joe!"  
  
"You guys...go!" Joe gasped, waving them on. "I'll catch up..."  
  
"No way, Jyou Kido!" Satsuma cried, planting her feet. "I'm not going anywhere until you do!"  
  
"Don't be stupid...go, you guys!"  
  
Tai looked torn, but he knew they couldn't waste precious seconds deliberating. He nodded. "Right. C'mon, Izzy!" They took off down the hallway with Matt in tow.  
  
"Tai, by the time we get back, we're not going to *have* a team anymore!" Matt bellowed angrily.  
  
"You think I wanted to leave Joe back there? We didn't have a choice-hey, where's Satsuma?!"  
  
A slender figure was sprinting back the way they'd come, orange hair flying out behind her.  
  
"Satsuma, you little idiot, what do you think you're doing?!" Tai yelled after her. She paused for a minute at the corner they'd just rounded.  
  
"Joe's my friend, Tai, and I can't leave him!"  
  
"Do you want me to come after you?"  
  
She laughed. "I'd like to see you try! I'm still champion of Spoons, Tai, and I can take you down any day!" Her face became solemn. "Good luck, guys. See you later-I hope."  
  
She was gone before any of them could answer. Tai and Izzy started off down the corridor again, Tai shaking his head, Izzy just looking shaken.  
  
We're losing everyone... Izzy thought dazedly. Where did this 'team' go wrong? When did we lose sight of teamwork?  
  
He'd stopped thinking about running by the time they reached a break in the linoleum. Stumbling, he almost fell...but a strong arm caught him and propelled him onwards.  
  
"Thanks a million, Tai..." Looking up, Izzy stared. "Matt?"  
  
Matt grinned; he was running on his own. "Satsuma has her own path, Izzy. Her harebrained ideas make Tai's point pretty clear, though. We have to cut our losses; we can make rescues later. We're almost there, now show us how fast a short guy can run!"  
  
Okay, so maybe teamwork isn't *completely* forgotten.  
  
Bolstered by friendship, all three boys took off down the corridor.  
  
  
  
Satsuma tore back towards the place they'd left Joe, fear warring with the decision she'd made as she'd blindly followed Tai away from her fallen friend.  
  
Friendship is not running away to save yourself...at least, not for me. Hold on, Joe!  
  
Rounding the last corner, she fell to her knees next to Joe, who still hadn't stood up.  
  
"Joe!"  
  
"Satsuma Taiyo, you moron, what do you think you're doing here?!" Joe yelled, sitting up, angry at himself for being traitorously happy to see her. The others had only disappeared from sight a few seconds ago, but it had seemed like hours...and he could already hear the bats getting closer...  
  
"I couldn't leave you," she said breathlessly, and gave him a quick hug that immediately shut him up. "Come on," she said, standing up and offering him a hand, "let's blow this Popsicle stand!"  
  
Joe leapt to his feet, wincing a little but willing to try. "Right. The others can't be too far ahead!"  
  
Satsuma was frowning, listening. "Joe..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Joe..." she said edgily, looking nervous.  
  
"Why are you just standing there? We've got to escape!"  
  
Satsuma blanched at something behind him. "It's a little late for that!" she yelled, and he whirled around to see a mass of black wings and beady, blood-red eyes boiling into view not ten feet behind them.  
  
"RUN!" he shouted, and grabbed her hand, taking off away from the bats with her in tow. Dark laughter that no longer sounded a bit like Mimi's was bubbling sickly from somewhere behind them, and Satsuma was beginning to gasp with weariness...  
  
It can't end like this! Joe thought desperately, watching the bats slowly gaining on them from over his shoulder. We can't lose now! We can't!  
  
Beads of sweat were beginning to break out on Satsuma's forehead; running away, then towards, and then away from this thing for these crucial moments was taking its toll on her, and she was already exhausted from playing Spoons. "I can't run...much further..." she gasped, trying futilely to keep up.  
  
"Hold on," Joe panted back, giving her hand a squeeze. "Just a little...more..."  
  
As they reached that break in the linoleum that had almost undone Izzy, Satsuma's toe caught against the ragged edge. Her feet skidded out from under her, and she was flung forward painfully, her hand tearing loose from Joe's grip. Struggling to get back to her feet, she waved to Joe not to slow down. He stopped, ten feet away, hesitating.  
  
"Keep going!" she yelled.  
  
"You didn't abandon me, and I won't abandon you!"  
  
"You still had a chance! If you get caught and I did all that running for squat, I will never forgive you, Jyou Kido! GO!"  
  
The bats were flocking down the hallway in a black wave. Satsuma's bright green eyes caught Joe's, and he saw the pleading in them. Save yourself, Joe...for me. Slowly, he began to walk backwards, still only half decided...  
  
As the first of the bats reached her, Satsuma managed to stumble to her feet...but it was too late. All at once, they were around her, obscuring her from sight. She reached out to him, her hand piercing the mass of black fur and leathery wings...  
  
Then, as the bats began to move toward him, their mass swallowing her up, Joe watched the slender hand disappear from sight.  
  
Breathing in frantic gasps, he wheeled around and fled, tears blurring his vision as his sheer desperation pushed him onward...  
  
  
  
Tai and the others reached the foyer as the last scraps of light faded from the sky. The room was echoing with screams and terrified sobbing, and they had only to look up to see why. The glass of the skylight was black with bats, fluttering in droves just above the window and bumping up against the glass, trying to get in.  
  
Almost a minute of stunned silence later, Joe slid up behind them, sweating and breathing hard. Satsuma was nowhere to be seen. Tai sucked in his breath, fear ramming an icicle through his heart.  
  
"Where is she?!" he asked frantically. Joe swallowed convulsively.  
  
"She's...she..." He couldn't finish, but the haunted, anguished look on his face answered him as clearly as words. All three boys looked at each other wretchedly, but there was no time for grieving. They could already hear the squeaking of the bats.  
  
"Come on! We've got to hide!" Dashing over to their corner with Joe in tow, Tai yelled a warning.  
  
"Everybody hide! If you think those bats are bad, you ain't seen nothing yet!" Reaching their hideout, they ducked under their sleeping bags, covering their heads with their hands and shielding themselves as best they could from the eyes of the bats.  
  
They were only just in time; a split second later, the shrieks of the other teenagers and the chittering of bats filled the room, un-muffled by the layers of blankets and sleeping bags. Joe was shaking, and Matt reached over under the cover of blankets to pat his shoulder in sympathy. Tai was visibly fighting a perverse desire to look out and see what was going on.  
  
Suddenly, a piercing scream ripped through the air, and Matt and Tai's heads came up.  
  
"Mimi..." Matt whispered, looking as haunted as Joe.  
  
"I can't stand it anymore!" Tai yelled, and pulled the blankets from his head, looking out at the roiling mass of bats and fleeing children. Matt joined him a second later, wielding a pillow to beat off wayward bats.  
  
Out in the confusion, a frail figure was just visible, with a glow of purple light around her. Even as they watched, the light seemed to fall away from her, puddling on the floor, and suddenly disappearing into a prostrate figure nearby with a sound like the last drops of a milkshake being sucked through a straw.  
  
Mimi wavered, swayed, and collapsed in a heap, caught by a hundred bats before she hit the floor. More bats nearby moved to help, and Mimi rose into the air, her limbs limp and dangling, and hung in space above their heads as she was borne up toward the ceiling. The bats outside fluttered around, agitated by something...  
  
And suddenly, the flying rodents inside and out gathered themselves and drove toward the glass of the skylight in one concerted motion. The glass shattered under the multiple impact, falling in a rain of razor-sharp, prickly hail to crunch among the feet of the screaming humans below. The bats disappeared through the newly-created exit, joining their fellows and soaring upward into the sky, taking Mimi with them.  
  
A sound like a dull explosion above them made everyone in the trashed foyer look up. The night sky seemed to have torn asunder, leaving a rift that glowed blood red with a light that hurt the eyes. The bats fluttered up into it, disappearing from view, as it hung there in space.  
  
Before the rest of the Digidestined could cry out, Mimi was gone.  
  
"No!" Matt yelled, slamming his fist into the floor. "No, no, no!"  
  
Joe was sitting stunned, as if in shock. Izzy put a hand on his shoulder, and he shook him off, turning away. Taken aback, Izzy stared at his friend.  
  
Tai was gazing after the bats, looking at the red wound in the sky with an I'm-up-to-something look in his eyes. It was the look that usually preceded most of his plans.  
  
"Izzy," he said quietly, but with a note of command in his voice that made the teenage tech pay attention, "how long would you say we have before that portal closes?"  
  
Izzy blinked, trying to calculate through a fog of shock. "Uhm...I'd say about an hour?"  
  
"That's long enough," Tai said decisively, standing up with purpose gleaming in his expression. "Get whatever you think will help, Matt. We're going to war."  
  
  
  
Twelve...twelve! Blast her weak human shell! One more soul and I am free...but she cannot hold even an insect's! Her pain wrenched her from my control...not for long, but for long enough. I cannot let her win! I will triumph! I must!  
  
But wait...why do I worry myself for nothing? I have my thirteenth soul, here and ready for the taking...  
  
Sweet Mimi, you have proved useful in yet another way...your last way. I am almost to my stronghold, and there I will finish what I started three Earth years ago. The altar is ready, and the bats are swift in their flight.  
  
Soon the rebirth will be complete.   
  
~*~*~*~ 


	9. The Song in the Darkness, the Thirteenth...

~* Darkness Rising, Silence Falls *~  
  
A Digimon 02 Fanfic by Bandit, ©2000  
  
  
Chapter 8- The Song in the Darkness, the Thirteenth Soul  
~*~*~*~  
  
"Tai! Tai, wait!"  
  
Turning, Tai saw Kari, TK, and the rest of the younger Digidestined pushing through the crowd with their Digimon tagging behind them. His face hardened.  
  
"Kari, what are you doing here?"  
  
"We came as soon as we heard," Kari panted, coming to a stop next to him. "It's all over the news! I knew there was something wrong with Mimi, she hasn't looked right for days..."  
  
"Go home, Kari," Tai said, turning away. Kari looked hurt and confused.  
  
"What? Why? You all need help getting into that portal without your Digimon, and we brought ours!"  
  
"We'll figure out another way," Tai said resolutely. "It's too dangerous. Now go home."  
  
"But..." Kari's lip trembled, and she looked as though she might cry. TK put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. The effect was immediate; Kari blinked away her tears and squared her shoulders.  
  
"I am not a baby, Tai. Mimi is my friend, and I want to help her. I'm not just playing soldier. And I am coming, so get used to it."  
  
Tai's jaw clenched, but Matt touched his shoulder. "She's right, Tai. She's your little sister, but she's Kari, too. And what Kari needs to do right now is what she feels is right. Okay?"  
  
There was a tense moment, but finally Tai sighed. "Okay." Kari gave a cheer, and TK hugged her. They drew back a minute later, blushing, and their older brothers exchanged a knowing look.  
  
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Kari yelled, getting her composure back and then losing it again as she threw her arms around her brother's neck. Tai frowned.  
  
"I don't think you'll be so keen on thanking me later...and Mom and Dad are going to kill me." Kari glared at him. "Oh, right, right. Well, Hi-chan, I guess you're growing up after all. Good for you. Now let's stop wasting time and go!"  
  
"Right!" the younger crowd chorused, and held up their D3's. Flashes of colored light lit the foyer as their Digimon exploded out of balls of rainbow light in their champion Digivolved forms.  
  
"Veemon, Digivolve to..." An orange explosion sent people ducking for cover as Davis' Digimon burst out of his Digivolving ball. "ExVeemon!"  
  
"Hawkmon, Digivolve to..." *Boom!* "Aquilamon!"  
  
"Gatomon, Digivolve to..." *Wham!* "Nefertimon!"  
  
"Patamon, Digivolve to..." *Bam!* "Pegasusmon!"  
  
"Wormon, Digivolve to..." *Bang!* "Stingmon!"  
  
By now, people were screaming and trying to escape. Tai sighed.  
  
"It's okay, people, they're friendly!" Yolei was yelling, without much success. Kari rolled her eyes.  
  
"Oh, this is good..."  
  
"What else did you expect?" Ken said with a small smile. "They're already scared out of their wits. This was the last straw. At least they're getting out of the way."  
  
"Yeah, I'd be pretty scared, too, if a load of explosions were going off around my ears, popping out monsters right and left," TK agreed.  
  
"Then there really isn't anything we can do about it right now...except go squash those bats and rescue Mimi!" Davis yelled triumphantly, pumping his fist in the air.  
  
"Man, from hearing him talk, you'd think we already won," TK said. Kari shrugged.  
  
"Let's hope we've got as much of a chance as he thinks we do..." she said.  
  
"You have to remember that the three of us have never seen Myotismon," Cody piped up. "We don't know what we're getting into."  
  
"Yeah, well, I've got a score to settle with Fangs there!" Davis said with a dark look. "It's easy to bully a scared eight-year-old, but I'm not eight anymore!"  
  
"Although you still sometimes act like it," Kari quipped.  
  
Yolei blinked. "A score to settle?"  
  
"Davis was one of the kids that Myotismon kidnapped and held captive while he was searching for Kari, back when we didn't know she was a Digidestined," Izzy explained. "I guess he wants revenge."  
  
"Just keep a clear head, Davis," Tai advised. "You'll get your chance, but don't do anything stupid, okay?"  
  
"Hey, this is me you're talking to, Tai," Davis said with a grin. "No worries, huh?"  
  
"No worries...riiight," Tai said uncomfortably.  
  
"Hey, Cody, why hasn't Armadillomon Digivolved?" Yolei asked.  
  
"Well, we're going to have to fly up to that portal, and none of his evolutions can do that," Cody said. "I was hoping to hitch a ride until we reach the Digital World."  
  
"Sure, you can ride Nefertimon with me," Kari said with a smile. "Is that okay, Nefertimon?"  
  
"Of course, Kari," the great sphinx Digimon said, bowing toward Cody and his Digimon. "I can easily carry you three; Cody and Armadillomon together make hardly one of the older kids' weight."  
  
"Great, then let's go!" Tai said, running over to ExVeemon and joining Davis on his back. Cody climbed onto Nefertimon with Armadillomon, and TK gave Matt a hand onto Pegasusmon's back. Izzy and Ken were plenty for Stingmon to carry.  
  
Joe sighed, watching them prepare for battle. He had been through too much...he suddenly knew how Mimi had felt, when she had refused to fight anymore. He was too tired...he couldn't do this anymore. Too many losses, too much sadness...  
  
He sat down on his sleeping bag with a deep sigh of defeat, putting his head in his hands.  
  
"Joe?" Tai called. "Joe, hurry up! You are coming, aren't you?"  
  
Joe didn't answer.  
  
"I guess he chickened out," Davis said in his usual, cluelessly blunt manner. "What were we supposed to expect? He's a chickening-out kind of guy."  
  
"We have to hurry, Tai," Izzy said regretfully. "We only have fifty minutes left before that portal closes.  
  
"Right..." Tai said, looking unhappily over his shoulder at the slumped figure of their resident neurotic. He still hadn't moved. "Okay, you guys...let's go."  
  
Joe heard the Digimon lifting off, but he didn't call after them. His hands fell to his sides. That was that, then. They were leaving...  
  
His fingers brushed something, and he looked down, blinking.  
  
It was a small, orange fruit. One of Satsuma's oranges.  
  
"Hello, where did you come from?" he said, picking it up. "I'll bet you fell out of her pocket when she was playing Spoons, didn't you?" Turning it over in his hands, he grinned, remembering the game. She was a real fighter...  
  
She wouldn't want me to give up.  
  
The thought was sudden, leaping unbidden to his mind, and with it came the picture of Satsuma's face...   
  
'It-it's been such an aw-awful d-day, and now you're being s-so n-nice to me...'   
  
'I couldn't leave you...'   
  
'If you get caught and I did all that running for squat, I will never forgive you, Jyou Kido! GO!'  
  
"I'm going," he whispered. Suddenly, he stood up, putting the orange in his pocket. "I'm going!" he yelled, raising his voice as he ran towards the middle of the room, where the others were just rising through the shattered skylight. "Hey, you guys, wait for me!" he shouted. "I'm coming with you!"  
  
"All right!" Davis jubilated. "I knew you'd come around!"  
  
TK snorted, but made no comment. Diving back to the floor of the foyer, Aquilamon landed in front of Joe, and Yolei gave him a hand up behind her. With a few powerful flaps of his wings, they rose up to meet the others, and in the next instant, all five Digimon and their passengers had disappeared into Myotismon's portal without a trace, with forty-eight minutes left before it closed forever.  
  
  
  
They are coming. I can feel their presence, and that alone tells me that I have regained almost my entire range of powers. With this, I can and will crush them. Foolish humans; they have no idea of the hopeless trap they are flying into...  
  
  
  
The wasted landscape stretched for miles in every direction, farther than the eye could see. Something was different about it this time...or, perhaps, the same? Mimi's eyes scanned the distant outlines of the rolling hills, perplexed.  
  
I've been here before... This is the place that I found myself in, the first time I came here!  
  
Every time she had come before, it had been to a different part of the endless wastes. This time, however, she recognized the shapes of the skyline that stretched bowl-like around her. Frowning, she scanned the ground around herself.  
  
There! But...that's impossible...  
  
She looked more closely at the sand at her feet, blinking in disbelief, but it was no trick of the light. Clearly marked in the sand at her feet were footprints, forming a line that wandered away into the distance. Tentatively, she stretched out a foot, and placed it gently in the first of the prints.  
  
It fit perfectly.  
  
There really is no wind here, she thought absently. They haven't been destroyed because there is nothing to blow them away. Taking a step forward, then another, she followed the line of prints, knowing somehow that it was important that she reach the end of their guiding trail...  
  
As she walked, she realized that she was barefoot. Her simple, white shift seemed almost to cling to her legs as she moved-had she been wearing it every time she had come here before? If not, when had it first appeared? Why had she never noticed?  
  
I was always too wrapped up in my own fear of pain and isolation to notice anything, she realized. So...why am I not afraid, now?  
  
The memory of the soul-wrenching pain that had torn through her in the moment before she had opened her eyes on the familiar landscape slipped through her mind.  
  
I am beyond pain, she saw, and felt no surprise, only resignation to the fact. I have felt too much for any human to bear, and I have survived. Pain can no longer touch me, here.  
  
The footprints suddenly changed direction, and began to space further apart. She remembered hearing a sound, turning toward it, breaking into a run...  
  
Mimi...  
  
She had never heard the voice in her life, at least not with her ears, and yet it was as familiar as the name it whispered across the wind. Her ears alert, she hurried her steps, still following the line of prints in the dust.  
  
Her shift began to blow gently around her, and then with greater force. She thought nothing of it, until she realized that the footprints were disintegrating, breaking apart, flying away in clouds of dust that rose up to choke her and sting her eyes, rendering her blind and mute...  
  
No! she tried to cry, Not when I'm so close that I can taste it! But the wind was relentless, and whisked the words away before they could sound in the dry, dusty air.  
  
Mimi, trust me...follow my voice...  
  
Shielding her face with one arm, leaning forward into the wind that now threatened to push her off of her feet-she knew that if she fell, she would never be able to rise, and the sands would bury her forever; but she would not fall!-Mimi struggled along, toward the voice that called to her from within the opaque haze of dust and sand that now filled the air like a fog. Her feet stubbed against the ground as she walked, just slightly, and she realized that she was moving uphill now, fighting every inch of the way...  
  
Suddenly, the wind stopped.  
  
The dust and sand in the air settled, and Mimi could feel it trickling across her face as it fell, nothing supporting it any longer. She blinked several time, trying to clear her vision, and looked out across the landscape revealed to her.  
  
She stood at the crest of a hill of sand, higher than the dunes around it. There was no sign of her mysterious guide. A low valley, like the impression of a bowl sunk in the sand, lay below her, and in it were shapes. Shapes made of what seemed to be colored light, and yet as solid as she herself, judging from the way the sand spattered across them as it fell.  
  
And just how solid are you, o mighty example of corporeality? she asked herself, perversely amused for the first time in days. Taking a few steps toward the shapes, she rubbed at her eyes, trying to discern what they were...  
  
And her eyes suddenly cleared of the last specks of dust.  
  
The shapes were animals.  
  
As she stared openly at them, a great burst of multicolored light showered across the landscape, and she stumbled back as the sand before her exploded into a shower of light and sound. Throwing her hands up to shield herself, she fell backwards, catching herself on her elbows with an impact that made her gasp for a moment.  
  
That's going to draw blood, she thought in mild displeasure, thinking of the tender skin of her elbows scraping across the rough sand, and of the pure white cloth of her shift. The injury didn't faze her so much as the thought of ruining her clothes, and that told her once again that something had happened to her perception of pain in that moment of pure, unadulterated agony that had brought her to this familiar landscape.  
  
But her thoughts were quickly recaptured by the wash of light above her, as it hovered in the dry air and began to coalesce into a shape. She recognized patterns of color, and what looked like wings...  
  
And then, very suddenly and with a soft whoosh of whispering sound, it came together and became solid, and she realized what it was.  
  
What...what are you...doing here? she gasped, stunned.  
  
The great butterfly flapped its wings a few times, raising clouds of dust.  
  
Mimi...you have defeated his first line of defense... Its voice boomed softly in her head, and she again was struck by its familiarity.  
  
You sound like someone I know...but I'm not sure who... she said in vague confusion. The butterfly seemed to laugh, but its laugh was a scattering of light from its wings, and not a sound at all.  
  
I am someone you know, or I suppose you could say that.  
  
Who? Mimi said, breathlessly.  
  
I am you, Mimi.  
  
  
  
"Where the heck are we?" Matt said, looking around in a perplexed way.  
  
The other Digidestined didn't bother to give him an answer; they knew he didn't expect one, and none of them knew where they were any better than he did, anyway. The place they were in was bleak and plain, a nighttime desert of heavy sand that crunched beneath their feet, covered in a low, drifting fog that came up to their knees. Gnarled, twisted trees, devoid of leaves, thrust upward through the fog at intervals, like old men's fingers pointing up to the blue-black sky.  
  
"We never came here while we were in the Digiworld," Izzy observed.  
  
"Maybe not, but we're definitely somewhere in it," Kari stated. "I recognize the constellations. There's that one that we always thought looked like Whamon." She pointed upward, and TK came to stand next to her, putting his face next to hers to follow her finger with his gaze. It seemed pretty romantic, until Tai joined them on her other side.  
  
"Hmm...'we'? Who's 'we'?" he said, frowning.  
  
"Me and Mimi..." Kari said, her lip suddenly beginning to tremble again. Suddenly, she bit down on it, scowling, and pulled away from both of them. "C'mon, you guys, let's get going! We're wasting our time here, and Mimi needs us!"  
  
"But we don't have any idea of which way to go," TK pointed out with infuriating calmness. "And it won't do Mimi any good if we go dashing off in some random direction and end up hopelessly lost."  
  
"But...but..." Kari stammered, deeply frustrated.  
  
"We should send up one of the Digimon to scout around, or something," TK said. "Isn't that right, Matt?"  
  
His brother didn't answer, and TK frowned and nudged him.  
  
"Matt... Hello! Earth to Matt, come in, Matt!" He gave him a shove, but Matt didn't even blink. TK began to look worried. "Tai, something's wrong with Matt!"  
  
"What?" Tai said, dropping his telescope, which he had been using to scan the horizon. "Aw, shoot!" He knelt and began to search the fog-obscured ground for it. "What do you mean, there's something wrong with him?"  
  
"He won't move! Tai, there's something really wrong here...I don't like this a bit!"  
  
  
  
Matt blinked repeatedly, trying to clear his vision. He'd been looking around, trying to find some sort of clue to their whereabouts... The last thing he remembered hearing was Kari saying that they were definitely somewhere in the Digiworld. Then he'd seen something glinting in the branches of one of those gnarled trees, and had taken a few steps toward it...  
  
A flash of light had reflected off of it suddenly, blinding him, and now he was standing here, trying to blink away the sunspots before his eyes...  
  
His vision coming back, he realized that he was alone.  
  
"Hello? Hello..." No one answered, and he shivered. This wasn't the foggy, scraggly forest he'd landed in with the others after navigating the portal. He was still in *a* waste, but not the one he'd been in a moment ago. This waste was more desertlike, more deserted-Something I'd have thought impossible a few minutes ago, he thought ironically-and the sky was gray and devoid of stars.  
  
Suddenly, he heard footsteps, and looked up. A figure was making its way toward him, a slender figure, dressed in white, with long hair blowing about its head and shoulders in the wind. Its bare feet left no footprints in the spectral, silver sand. He took a few steps toward it, then froze, suddenly afraid. What if it wasn't friendly? What if it was downright dangerous?  
  
The figure made no attempt to call out to him, but only continued to come steadily closer. Matt frowned...it didn't look dangerous, but you could never be sure...  
  
As he finally got a good look at it, Matt sucked in his breath, a wash of ice running down his spine. He could see the figure's feet clearly; in fact, he could see it up to its knees. But at about that point, it began to-not fade, not exactly, but-become transparent. By its shoulders, he could see the distant dunes right through it, and its face was so insubstantial that he couldn't make out its features. He began to back away, terrified.  
  
The figure stopped as he began to move, and held out its hands in what looked like a silent plea. The gesture would have been more reassuring if Matt had not been able to see the sands of the desert through the pleading hands, but he was still surprised and, somehow, captivated enough to stop.  
  
As it dropped its hands and began to walk forward again, Matt realized that it was becoming clearer, more opaque, the closer it came. He blinked and squinted, trying to make out the figure's face.  
  
The silhouette's gown whipped around its ankles, alternately pulled tightly against its 'body' and billowed around it by the wind. Definitely female, whatever it is, Matt thought, slightly embarrassed. He forgot his embarrassment, however, when he realized that it was beginning to look very familiar...in fact, it looked almost like...  
  
And at that moment of realization, only a few feet in front of him now, the figure stopped, and its body became instantly as clearly visible and solid as his own.  
  
"Mimi!" he gasped. Her eyes were sad as they looked into his.  
  
I am not the Mimi you search for, came a voice-Mimi's, yet not Mimi's-ringing in his mind. I am...another. The one you seek is further on. I will guide you to her...  
  
"I don't understand..." Matt said softly, looking into her warm hazel eyes. "What do you mean, 'the Mimi I search for'?" The figure began to fade, and he started up in alarm. "Wait! Don't go! MIMI!"  
  
Follow my death.  
  
"What death? I don't understand! Please..." He stretched out a hand, to catch at her arm, but his fingers passed through her as though she were no more substantial than air. As they did, a sort of ripple seemed to pass through the illusion that was her, and she gasped as if in pain.  
  
He drew back, shocked at what his innocent gesture had done, and realized that her face had gone white, as if dead. She began to topple backwards, her eyes not leaving his.  
  
Follow my death...  
  
She made no move to catch herself, but fell proudly, straight and tall, like a sapling cut in two by a single swipe of a careless knife. Matt reached out to her, but her fall was-impossibly-slowing, as her gown floated around her. Less than a foot from the ground, she vanished, dissolving into sparkles of colored light that raced away into the distance.  
  
Follow my death...  
  
  
  
"Matt! Wake up!"  
  
Matt shook his head, slowly, as if awakening from a dream. He was drifting back...but from where? All he could see was Mimi's face, paling, dying at his touch...  
  
"Follow my death..." he whispered, staring off into the distance as the world around him came gradually back into focus.  
  
"What? Matt, snap out of it! What death?"  
  
"He's talking! He's coming awake!"  
  
He wanted to come back, he really did, but he was busy now, far too busy to return; maybe later, after he had puzzled out the not-Mimi's riddle...  
  
"Follow my death... Wait for me...I can't...I can't find...help me! I can't-"  
  
*slap!*  
  
He was jolted back to reality with a start. Tai stood before him, his hand still raised.  
  
"Wha...? Tai?"  
  
"Sorry about that, man, but you gave us a real scare there."  
  
"Yeah, Matt, what happened?" TK said, looking rattled. "You looked like a statue, or something...I don't think you could even see me right in front of you, and your eyes were wide open!"  
  
Matt wasn't listening. "Follow her death," he murmured.  
  
"Whose death? Would you mind elucidating on that point for the rest of us?" Izzy said impatiently. Matt was walking away, straight ahead: the direction that the not-Mimi's remains had flown, back in that dream world of a desert.  
  
"Mimi's. I saw Mimi."  
  
"What?!" Kari exclaimed.  
  
"She said to follow her death..." Suddenly, a flash of light caught his eye, and he took several running steps forward. It was the thing in the tree that had sent him into that world in the first place. As he neared it, the others following at his heels with loud complaints, he recognized it; it was a shard of glass from the skylight.  
  
"Matt, what-"  
  
"They've been through here!" he shouted, startling everyone. "Look!" He reached the tree, spotted another bit of glass glinting in the fog a few feet away, ran to it, and saw another. "We have to follow the trail of broken glass they dropped!"  
  
"But, what if they were coming the other direction?" Davis said with a frown.  
  
"The trail only starts here," Matt said. "Besides, I know this is the way to go. I just do, okay?" he said firmly as Davis began to protest. "Don't ask how. Just trust me."  
  
With that, he took off across the foggy ground. The others looked at Tai, who paused, thinking, and then nodded decisively and followed his friend. The others shrugged and followed their leader.  
  
  
  
Mimi's mind reeled.  
  
Me? But...you can't be me...I mean, *I'm* me... Aren't I?  
  
The butterfly laughed again, with another scattering of light.  
  
In a way. I am not quite you, Mimi. But neither are you.  
  
What? Mimi stammered.  
  
We, together, are Mimi. You are more of her than I am, but I am her as well.  
  
I...don't understand, Mimi said softly.  
  
I am your subconscious, Mimi. Your soul, so to speak. We are each other.  
  
But...I... About to protest that she still didn't understand, Mimi was suddenly hit with a revelation. Oh... I think I get it, now... I couldn't explain it to someone else, but I think I understand it...  
  
She paused, and looked past the butterfly to the not-quite-animals below.  
  
So who are they? What are they doing here? She paused. Why are they so sad?  
  
The butterfly fluttered lower. Climb onto my back, she sent. I will explain as we go.  
  
Mimi obliged. She was half afraid that the butterfly would prove as insubstantial as it looked, and that her hand would go through it, but it held her weight. They soared down over the basin-like valley. Mimi counted the animals as they passed. There were twelve.  
  
They are other souls, her subconscious said softly. The ones that the Dark Lord has captured, for his own resurrection.  
  
The Dark Lord? You mean Myotismon? Mimi said, a shiver of fear running through her. The butterfly only sighed, a raining of dull blue-green light from its wings, and flew on. But...who are they?  
  
You know four. Find them.  
  
Frowning, Mimi scanned the shapes. A yellow stag, a purple eagle, some sort of lizard in glaring green...  
  
The lizard! she said suddenly. The butterfly nodded.  
  
Your friend, Aika Shanjo.  
  
And... Mimi looked carefully, and saw a small brown shape: a kitten. Kichi! That's Kichi! A bright orange flare caught her eye, and she recognized the form of a tiger. That's...that's Satsuma Taiyo, Joe's friend! Mimi cried in surprise. How did she...I mean...when...?  
  
Just after the Dark Lord forced you here, the butterfly said sadly. She is a very free spirit. It tears at her to be imprisoned here.  
  
Sure enough, as Mimi watched, the tiger reared up and let out a miserable roar, clawing at the air. Falling back to earth, it whimpered and lay down, sounding and looking sad and lost...  
  
Why doesn't she see me? Mimi said, confused.  
  
She cannot see out of the basin, any more than she can leave it. To us, they seem free, but to them, they are trapped in a small patch of the Shadowlands, a prison cell of the soul, unable to escape.  
  
A wash of anger welled up in Mimi's heart. Suddenly, she wanted to destroy Myotismon, longed to crush his cruel head into the dirt...  
  
Kill not in anger, Mimi. Look for your friend.  
  
Mimi's eyes lit on something blue, and her rage faded, replaced by a deep, guilty sadness. A large blue bird perched on a stone outcrop at the side of the basin; as it raised its head momentarily to look dejectedly around itself, its wings stirred, fluttering with blue flame, and she realized that it was a phoenix.  
  
Sora... Mimi whispered, half horrified, half racked with guilt. The butterfly seemed to sense the emotions, and sighed again.  
  
Do not blame yourself, Mimi, she said gently. The Dark Lord did this. Not you.  
  
Why? Mimi wailed. Why did he do this to them? Why did he choose me?  
  
I do not know, the butterfly said. I only know that we are strong, stronger than he knows us to be. He has underestimated us, and that is his weakness and his vital mistake. You can defeat him with it, and free yourself and your friends from his clutches forever.  
  
How? Mimi said in desperation.  
  
I do not know. That is a mystery you will have to unravel yourself. I know one thing that might help you; there is a second prophecy, passed down through the ages, made by the same prophet who helped you against him when he was first defeated...  
  
What is it? Tell me! Mimi insisted. This prophecy might be her only hope...  
  
The butterfly stirred her wings, sending clouds of colored light into the air. From the light, and without making any real sound at all, words reached her ears...or was it her soul?  
  
  
  
When darkness shadows the sun  
  
When love seems dead and gone  
  
When winged ones fill the skies  
  
When light falls, and hope cries  
  
In this the darkest hour  
  
A dark one comes to power  
  
A dozen souls enslaved  
  
The thirteenth soul must save  
  
She bears the cruelest pain  
  
But ere the sun shines again  
  
The strong one must win by losing  
  
To e'er again hear the phoenix sing  
  
  
  
There was silence for a moment. Then Mimi spoke.  
  
That's all?  
  
The butterfly nodded.  
  
But...but that doesn't tell me anything! I still don't know what to do! Swallowing hard, Mimi struggled against panic. I can't do this! You've got the wrong person-I'm not strong, or any of that! And I'm awful at bearing pain! And how do you win by losing? It makes no sense! Mimi knew she was losing her battle against fear, but she didn't care anymore. This was all wrong!  
  
It is not the best, the butterfly admitted, but it is all we have. You must go forth and use it to the best of your ability, or both worlds are lost.  
  
What?  
  
The butterfly radiated gentle sympathy, instead of the pity or disgust Mimi had been afraid it would feel for her.  
  
Mimi, Myotismon does not mean to sit quietly and smell the roses once he is reborn. He wants power, and he means to obtain that power through conquest. The wish to control eats at his soul, and undermines his wits. When his temper is lost and that insane lust for power is given control, it takes away the facade of civilization he wears and reveals him for the beast he is. That loss of self-control was what destroyed him the last time you fought.  
  
But...we destroyed him!  
  
Because he let his guard down. Because he allowed the madness that lurks within him to break free. He does not intend to allow that again, Mimi, and he knows you all too well now. In that knowledge, that readiness, he believes he can control you all, as well.  
  
The butterfly sighed again.  
  
And he is right.  
  
No! Mimi cried. She felt sick. If this beautiful creature had given in, what chance did a weak, frightened child like her have against the deep-rooted evil that threatened everything she loved? Struggling not to sob or throw up or faint, she clung to the butterfly's back. Then...there is no hope?  
  
Hope will not help us tonight, the butterfly said calmly. It is Sincerity we all look to for salvation. It is purity, and honesty, and good intentions.  
  
Good intentions gone astray, Mimi said bitterly. This is impossible.  
  
Nothing is impossible. He can control what he expects, but there is one thing he has not foreseen, and is not prepared for. You.  
  
Me? What can I do?  
  
You can attack from within. He believes us to be in his control...but he is wrong. He will not think to defend himself against you, and so you will have the one opportunity to strike. Do not waste it.  
  
Wait! Mimi cried, suddenly nervous. Her stomach felt almost as though something pulled at it, and she wondered if she really was going to be sick... When should I strike? How? Explain, please!  
  
The prophecy has told you when, the butterfly said, and Mimi realized that her voice was fading. When darkness shadows the sun, when love seems dead and gone...  
  
But I don't know what the prophecy means! Mimi wailed.  
  
When winged ones fill the skies, when light falls and hope cries...  
  
Stop reciting and listen to me! Help me against him!  
  
The butterfly's wings slowed their beating. I cannot. I am trapped here. It is through me that he controls you...but he may make one mistake. If he lets go his grip on me, then strike. Use your best judgment, and wait until the last possible moment. Attack with your whole heart. Do not forget the prophecy. You are the thirteenth soul. In this the darkest hour, a dark one comes to power...  
  
You can't leave me to face him! Mimi screeched. Don't leave me! She could feel the pulling in her stomach become stronger, dragging her up and out of the Shadowlands. He was summoning her...he could control her...  
  
I will never leave you, Mimi. I am you, and you are me. He may command your body, but he has never controlled your heart. Remember!  
  
And she remembered. She was not a weak, frightened child. She was a butterfly.   
  
That beautiful creature was her.  
  
The knowledge sent a surge of confidence through her. The world depended on them, and while the weak child that she now knew was not her true self would have been afraid, the butterfly that she had realized she truly was would fight the darkness forever to protect that which was dearest to it.  
  
I'll remember, she whispered as the butterfly and the Shadowlands and the trapped souls in their valley all faded from her sight. And I'll do my best. I promise.  
  
~*~*~*~ 


End file.
